PodParley PodParley
PodParley
Harmony Holiday: Against Sentimentality

EPISODE · Aug 13, 2025 · 41 MIN

Harmony Holiday: Against Sentimentality

from Poetry Centered · host University of Arizona Poetry Center

Harmony Holiday selects poems that shed the skin of nostalgia, testing the boundaries of cruelty as they push toward clarity. She introduces Robert Hass accepting moments of error (“A Story About the Body”), Ai recognizing the humanity of the evil-doer (“Salome”), and Allen Ginsberg acknowledging his mother’s scars as he grieves (“Kaddish”). Holiday closes with her poem “Tale of the Sudden Sweetness of the Dictator,” which refuses sentimentality by telling a story in sharp detail.Listen to the full recordings of Hass, Ai, and Ginsberg reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (September 12, 1984)Ai (March 6, 1985)Allen Ginsberg (April 30, 1969)Check out Holiday’s Substack Black Music and Black Muses.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

NOW PLAYING

Harmony Holiday: Against Sentimentality

0:00 41:45

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

Share this episode

Similar Episodes

No similar episodes found.

Similar Podcasts

LIGHTS, CAMERA, SMILE! Creatives Club Media Lights, Camera, Smile, is a podcast for anyone with a dream to share something with the world, out of the overflow of themselves - be it their mind, their heart, their personalities, and much more. Each of us are alive in this moment in time, with an innate ability to have ideas and create various things to benefit both ourselves and the people around us for a reason, and here, you will find the encouragement, the inspiration, and the motivation to do just that. Hosted by Cicily, founder of Creatives Club, she dives into various topics surrounding creativity and business. Exploring entrepreneurship for creatives in a corporate reality, sharing tips and tricks in a media centered company, answering questions regarding what a creative actually is are just a few of the things discussed on this podcast. Be encouraged to create for yourself as Cicily gets vulnerable by pivoting the camera to herself for the first time.To submit questions for Cicily to answer, or have her address certain t GSMC Classics: The Whistler GSMC Podcast Network The Whistler was a radio mystery anthology broadcast on CBS Radio from May 16, 1942 to September 22, 1955. The show centered on a character known only as the Whistler which was the host and narrator of the tales, focusing on crime and fate. The stories followed a formula in which a person's criminal acts were typically revealed either by an overlooked but important detail or by the criminal's own stupidity. The whistler was portrayed by Bill Forman. GSMC Classics presents some of the greatest classic radio broadcasts, classic novels, dramas, comedies, mysteries, and theatrical presentations from a bygone era. The GSMC Classics collection is the embodiment of the best of the golden age of radio. Let Golden State Media Concepts take you on a ride through the classic age of radio, with this compiled collection of episodes from a wide variety of old programs. ***PLEASE NOTE*** GSMC Podcast Network presents these shows as historical content and have brought them to you unedited. Meter meterdaydreamingnetwork Capturing the Moments! With poets from around the world, take this moment for yourself to explore your mind with the endless power of poetry. To find the endless possibilities of this world. Song Against Songs, The by G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) LibriVox LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of The Song Against Songs by G. K. Chesterton. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 16, 2011.Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 21 stone (130 kg; 290 lb). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During World War I a lady in London asked why he was not 'out at the Front'; he replied, 'If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.' On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw: "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England". Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it". P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin."( Summary from Wikipedia )
URL copied to clipboard!