December 4, 2023

This is the Culture Show. Coming up: Tracy K. Smith. Through her poetry, the Pulitzer-prize winner probes the meaning of life. She meditates on what happens to our souls when we die. She communes with the dead. And ultimately, she makes the personal universal. Smith’s poems scrutinize oppression, the contradiction that is the American dream, and the injustices that plague our nation. All these themes converge in her new memoir “To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul. ” It’s lyrical, it’s urgent and in this work –as Smith puts it–she is looking at Black strength and asking the question: where are we now, 400 years into the American Experiment? From there, It’s onto ‘Balancing Acts.’ With local theaters presenting a paradox of choice, from Holiday classics to world premieres, theater critics Joyce Kulhawik and Chris Ehlers join me to preview --and prioritize—the must-see productions of the season.