"Gioia said he once feared that poetry had become so complicated that it
would never appeal to a mass audience. The rise of rap in the 1980s
underscored an unarticulated need for the oral tradition in U.S. society, he
said."
I've heard this line from Gioia before. I'd like to ask him which hip-hop
record he slid into the CD player this morning when he got in his car to
drive to work. (Guess: The Montovani Strings do Tupac.) I'm sorry to see my
old pal Gerry LaFemina hanging around in such bad company.
On the other hand, the performance of the Robert
Hayden<http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/196>poem was fine & poetry
recitation is fine. I don't think it's a bad thing to
encourage students to memorize and recite poetry. More Hayden poems
here<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=3014>
.
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
Weblog: sharpsand.net
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