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Lift Every Voice public programs engage participants in a multifaceted exploration of African American poetry, the perspectives it offers on American history and the struggle for racial justice, and the universality of its imaginative response to the personal experiences of Black Americans over three centuries.
The Initiative Features: 
・ Signature events with Kevin Young and an acclaimed poets and performers in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles
・ Regional programming in 49 public libraries nationwide
sIGnAtUre EvEnTs:
Lift Every Voice: Los Angeles
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The Enduring Power of Langston Hughes
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August 27, 2020

Willie Perdomo Reads “Bembé-Faced” and “Arroz con Son y Clave”

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April 29, 2021

The Healing Power of Poetry, in and as African American Theater

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February 25, 2021

“When Poems Call and Poems Respond,” with Douglas Kearney

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April 21, 2021

The Enduring Power of Langston Hughes

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April 20, 2021

Sisters in Struggle and Song

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November 12, 2020

Avery R. Young: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron

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November 12, 2020

Billy Branch Reads “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes

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January 28, 2021

Amanda Gorman: “Old Jim Crow Got to Go” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

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February 23, 2021

Tyehimba Jess on “Olio” (One Book One Bronx)

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February 21, 2021

Sha'Condria “iCon” Sibley at the Pass It On Fest

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February 22, 2021

Kalamu Ya Salaam at the Pass It On Fest

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July 15, 2020

Danielle Legros Georges Reads Her Poem “Hostage”

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January 16, 2021

Black Experience in History and Memory

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October 16, 2020

A Café of Poetry Readings (University of Wyoming)

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January 28, 2021

Lift Every Voice: Los Angeles

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July 28, 2020

Jericho Brown Reads “The Tradition”

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September 2, 2020

Alison C. Rollins Reads “Why Is We Americans”

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June 2, 2020

Jaki Shelton Green: “Oh My Brother”

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September 17, 2020

Danez Smith Reads “my president”

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September 17, 2020

Jessica Care Moore Reads “I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies” by June Jordan

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September 17, 2020

Tyehimba Jess Reads “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes

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September 17, 2020

Sonia Sanchez Reads “Father Son and Holy Ghost” by Audre Lorde

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September 17, 2020

Danez Smith Reads “Heartbeats” by Melvin Dixon

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September 17, 2020

Toi Derricotte Reads “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden

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August 4, 2020

Gary Jackson Reads “Kansas”

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December 1, 2020

Tracy K. Smith and Kevin Young: The African American Poetic Tradition

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September 4, 2020

Rita Dove Reads “The Wardrobe Lesson”

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September 4, 2020

Rita Dove Reads “Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove”

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September 2, 2020

Anis Mojgani: “Closer”

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September 22, 2020

A Reading with Afaa Michael Weaver

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September 14, 2020

Eve L. Ewing: “I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store”

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August 13, 2020

Toi Derricotte: “Black Boys Play the Classics”

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September 1, 2020

Ishion Hutchinson: “After the Hurricane”

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September 4, 2020

Rachel Eliza Griffiths: “Seeing the Body”

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November 12, 2020

Lift Every Voice: Chicago

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October 22, 2020

Lift Every Voice: Atlanta

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September 18, 2020

Jamila Woods: “SULA (Hardcover)”

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October 16, 2018

Jamila Woods: “GIOVANNI”

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April 9, 2019

Cave Canem/New School Reading with Alison C. Rollins

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January 20, 2020

Alison C. Rollins at the High Low Literary Cafe, St. Louis

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October 6, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads Her Poem “Praise Song for the Day” (Then and Now)

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October 5, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads Rita Dove’s “Adolescence—II”

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October 5, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads from Robert Hayden’s “[American Journal]”

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October 2, 2020

Kevin Young on “Ma Rainey” by Sterling A. Brown

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October 2, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “Ma Rainey”

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October 1, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton

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October 1, 2020

Sterling A. Brown Reads “Ma Rainey”

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October 1, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton

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October 1, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads Her Poem “Race”

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September 30, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses “Dear John, Dear Coltrane” by Michael S. Harper

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September 30, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay

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September 30, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay

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September 29, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads Her Poem “Nineteen”

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September 28, 2020

Mahershala Ali: Our Own Way of Seeing the World

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September 28, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “Dear John, Dear Coltrane” by Michael S. Harper

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September 23, 2020

Kevin Young Comments on “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes

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September 23, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes

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September 22, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses His Poem “Money Road”

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September 22, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “Money Road”

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September 22, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Comments on “The Black Back-Ups” by Kate Rushin

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September 22, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads “The Black Back-Ups” by Kate Rushin

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September 21, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander: “I Send Them to Anthologies”

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September 21, 2020

Phylicia Rashad Reads “The Slave Mother”

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September 17, 2020

Lift Every Voice: New York City

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September 19, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Discusses “The Second Sermon on the Warpland” by Gwendolyn Brooks

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September 19, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads “The Second Sermon on the Warpland” by Gwendolyn Brooks

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September 19, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Comments on “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni

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September 19, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Reads “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni

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September 19, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

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September 19, 2020

Kevin Young Reads “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

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September 19, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Comments on “We Wear the Mask”

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September 18, 2020

Kevin Young Discusses “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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September 18, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander and Kevin Young Read “We Wear the Mask”

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May 21, 2015

Aja Monet: “#sayhername”

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September 4, 2020

Elizabeth Alexander Discusses “Lift Every Voice and Sing”

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September 3, 2020

Mahershala Ali Discusses Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Malcolm X”

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September 3, 2020

Phylicia Rashad Recites “Lift Every Voice and Sing”

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September 3, 2020

Mahershala Ali Reads Gwendolyn Brooks's poem “Malcolm X”

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September 3, 2020

Kevin Young Introduces Lift Every Voice

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May 2, 2018

Between the Lines: “Brown” by Kevin Young, with Claudia Rankine

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October 18, 2019

Jacqueline Woodson: “Tobacco”

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June 22, 2010

Derek Walcott: The Perpetual Ideal Is Astonishment

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January 30, 2018

Live from the Archive: Quincy Troupe

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November 8, 2018

Natasha Trethewey: “Imperatives for Carrying on in the Aftermath”

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April 30, 2019

Oratorio: I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It

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April 19, 2019

In Conversation: Dr. Carla Hayden and Tracy K. Smith

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March 31, 2016

Tracy K. Smith: “The Universe is a House Party”

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October 15, 2014

Talks at the Schomburg: Ntozake Shange

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December 18, 2017

Nicole Sealey Poetry Reading at JMU

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September 16, 2019

Nicole Sealey: “Object Permanence”

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June 29, 2019

In Conversation with Sonia Sanchez

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December 8, 2015

Claudia Rankine Reads from “Citizen”

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December 10, 2018

Morgan Parker and Danez Smith

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March 23, 2017

Furious Flower Presents Gregory Pardlo

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September 18, 2018

The Startling Life of Pauli Murray

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April 2, 2014

Dawn Lundy Martin at Furious Flower

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February 13, 2018

The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

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June 23, 2017

Facing It: The Poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa

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December 10, 2018

The Tenth Muse with Tyehimba Jess

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February 26, 2015

Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel on Langston Hughes

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