American Women — Poetry

  • True story / Alta ; interviewed by Ruth Rosen and Isabel Welsh.

    Alta, a Bay Area feminist poet, reads her poetry, accompanied on classical guitar by Angel, and discusses it with Ruth Rosen and Isabel Welsh. Produced by Jan Legnitto for KPFA. Contains sensitive language.

  • Penelope’s web / produced by Judy Chaikin and Naomi Pollack

    A free-form tapestry woven from music, poetry, myths, literature, and drama by and about women. Pieces in Part 1 include: “An ancient gesture” by Edna St. Vincent Milay; “Bell pieces” from Grapefruit by Yoko Ono; “Pain for a daughter” by Anne Sexton; “Man woman sketch” by Naomi Pollack; “Stillbirth” from the Diary of Anais Nin,…

  • Sadie and Maude, 1971 / Jeanette Henderson and Linda Taylor.

    In this program of poetry, discussion and music dedicated to Angela Davis, two young Black women, Jeanette Henderson, wife and mother, and Linda Taylor, student, read the works of Black women poets Sojourner Truth, Jeanette MacDonald, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charlene Grant and Brown poet, Inglacia Delagente. Black liberation and its relationship to white women’s liberation, and…

  • The blood jet is poetry : the life and work of Sylvia Plath / Mimi Weisbord Anderson and Nanette Rainone.

    Biographical sketch of poet Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). Program includes interview footage with Plath by Peter Orr from the British Council, recorded in London in October 1962. During this interview she reads the following poems: Stopped Dead, Daddy, Lady Lazarus, The Applicant, Medusa, A Secret, Amnesiac, Nick and the Candlestick, and A Birthday Present. Other readings…

  • Jeanetta Jones reads her poetry / interviewed by Gerard Van der Leun.

    Poet Jeanetta Jones reads selections from her work and discusses her life and work with Gerard Van der Leun. Jones was the director of the New American Poetry Circuit cooperative in San Francisco from 1969-1971. No intro or outro. Contains sensitive language.

  • A woman’s cry / read by Selma Lawrence and Barbara Kraft

    A montage of selected readings about women’s social conditions, read by Julie Adams, Jo Raskin, Selma Lawrence and Norma Connolly. Readings by Thomas Aquinas, George Bernard Shaw, Edna St. Vincent Millay, George Sand, Joan Didion, and others. Written, produced, and directed by Barbara Kraft. Edited by Everett Frost.

  • Two poets read / Sotere Torregian and Diane Di Prima.

    Poets Sotère Torregian and Diane Di Prima read their poems at a benefit performance for Heirs Magazine at Project Artaud in San Francisco on July 23, 1971, sponsored by the Neighborhood Arts Program. Torregian reads “Plebiscite” (the recording cuts in while his reading was in progress). Di Prima reads “an inflammatory poem” written “in collaboration…

  • Men thought to be the enemy / Alta ; interviewed by Eleanor Sully.

    Alta (1942 – ) reads a prose piece accompanied by flutist Curly Hummingbird. Presented by Eleanor Sully. Broadcast on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1971.

  • Diane Wakoski, poet.

    Poet Diane Wakoski reads selections from her recent work. The poems she reads are With Words, I Have Had to Learn to Live With My Face, Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch, The Purple Finch Song, The Lament of the Lady Bank Dick, To Celebrate My Body and The Pink Dress.…

  • Sadie and Maude / Jeanette Henderson and Linda Taylor

    In this program of poetry, discussion and music dedicated to Angela Davis, two young Black women, Jeanette Henderson, wife and mother, and Linda Taylor, student, read the works of Black women poets Sojourner Truth, Jeanette MacDonald, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charlene Grant, and a poem titled “Inside the Church of the People” by an anonymous poet. Black…