The Literary Review Raves about Grace Cavalieri’s Other Voices, Other Lives
A new review of Grace Cavalieri's Legacy Book, Other Voices, Other Lives, was recently published in the long-running literary magazine The Literary Review. Author Karin Falcone Krieger calls Grace Cavalieri "a living legend" in their glowing review of the book. Fascinated by Grace Cavalieri's interpolated interviews with US Poets Laureate, Falcone lauds "[Other Voices, Other Lives] opens doors to so many other authors’ work, it creates a reading list to last even longer. Trust we are in good company, and it is a lively party."
In her review, Falcone also gives special attention to Grace's incredible life captured in her 2016 memoir, Life Upon a Wicked Stage, and to the situating introduction to OVOL from Rose Solari that "Rose Solari’s introduction is in the voice of a loving friend, focusing on tender specifics of that relationship, and the warmth of Cavalieri’s mentorship." Most people don't know about the hand Cavalieri had in shaping PBS, in crafting WPFW, or the massive influence of her NPR show "The Poet and The Poem," but it is clear Krieger did their research.
In a lovely moment, the reviewer describes a dream they had after reading Other Voices, Other Lives, "I fell asleep reading this book and dreamt I got to meet Grace Cavalieri in the hallways of WPFW where she once broadcast “The Poet and the Poem.” On the walls were 5-foot high pencil sketches of the faces of poets she had interviewed on the show: a wall of fame in progress. She’s talking quickly and gesturing to the drawings, explaining how she has recruited art students to complete the portraits, creating murals of the poets on the curved walls of 1970’s architecture in the radio station. The dream felt like the essence of her generous and community-building nature and was reminiscent of that golden age of PBS children’s programming I grew up with, which she had quietly shaped as well."
“On the Road, Columbia, South Carolina, Spring 1959” A Poem by Reuben Jackson
“There’s much said in what’s not said in Reuben Jackson’s poetry. His cleverly sparse style often convincingly veils the complexities of which he writes, just until the poet sharply corrects our deception.” Linda Stiles
Those deceptions Ms. Stiles refers to above often come from Reuben’s use of the child’s point of view. As a child, the narrator, and reader by proxy, is looking up at the absurdity of adult interests and actions with a renewed curiosity. The narrator misses the cut of the barber’s words when asked “aren’t you proud of being negro?” The narrator cannot reason why the neon lights of the roadside motel are fading in the rear-view window, and yet his father seemed once so confident…
New Poem by Reuben Jackson, “Radio Nights”
Radio Nights by Reuben Jackson ASP is proud to premier the new Reuben Jackson poem, “Radio Nights.” From Reuben: As I mentioned during the interview with Rose Solari, my childhood […]
Reuben Jackson Reads his Poem “Second Grade”
Reuben Jackson Reads “Second Grade” “Reuben Jackson’s poems are gateways to possible worlds. With the finesse of a real sleight-of-hand artist, he transforms the truly personal—hopes, dreams, desires—into universal memories.” Richard […]