Horace Gregory, "Chorus for Survival"
Horace Gregory
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Al Filreis convened Cristos Kalli, Jon Hoel, and Henry Steinberg to talk about two poems about the once hugely famous and now mostly forgotten communist and communist-affiliated poet who thrived for decades but most notably in the 1930s. In the middle of the Depression decade — in the momentous year of 1935 — he published the book Chorus for Survival with Covici-Friede. Our group discussed two poems in the Chorus for Survival series — numbers 5 and 11. In 1944, Gregory traveled to Cambridge, Mass., to record some poems for the Harvard Vocarium, performing six poems include the two we discuss. Jon and Al had met up nearly a year before, discovered a common interest in Gregory, and have co-curated this episode.
January 27, 2025
Baking with Emily Dickinson
An interview with Houghton librarians Christine Jacobson and Emily Walhout on your virtual birthday party
Some of the readers included the poet and performer Tracie Morris, the television showrunner and creator of Apple TV’s Dickinson, Alena Smith, NPR’s Nikki Silva, cocreator of “The Kitchen Sisters,” Rachel Syme of the New Yorker, poet and Shayla Lawson, the young poet and model Amanda Gorman, and more exciting artists and writers. We were able to watch a preview of Dickinson with Alena’s reading.