"Talk" by Terrance Hayes Mary Karr introduces a poem by Terrance Hayes ("Poet's Choice," Washington Post, July 6, 2008) We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020. And the poem opens out into this big question - define life. There are definitely 14 lines per poem, so that's that sonnet form that you may or may not remember from your 10th grade English class. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Terrance Hayes earned a BA at Coker College and an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. It's really inventive, right? Terrance Hayes is a 2014 MacArthur Fellow. TAYLOR: Perpetual - yes. Accuracy and availability may vary. Tess, thanks so much. SHAPIRO: Tess Taylor sharing Terrance Hayes's new collection called "American Sonnets From My Past And Future Assassin." And then, yes, as the title suggests, every single poem is a sonnet. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with poetry reviewer, Tess Taylor about Terrance Hayes' new collection American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin. The poet Terrance Hayes first arrived on the scene in 1999 with a book called "Muscular Music." And... SHAPIRO: We should tell people that Terrance Hayes is a black poet, and blackness - and maleness comes up a lot in these poems. SHAPIRO: The most striking thing about this book when you open it up is that each poem has the same title. Define life. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1971, and educated at Coker College where he studied painting and English and was an Academic All-American on the men’s basketball team. (Reading) A barn shootout endangering the farm life - I live a life that burns a hole through life that leaves a scar for life that makes me weep for another life. You've got the music. Since then, he's won a huge number of literary prizes, including a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. And I think that that - this relentless title comes back to the relentlessness of, you know, the American racism that we live with. I mean, what does he accomplish by doing this? And then there are poems that are really - what's the word I want? It's like he's made these sonnets to try to contain something uncontainable. He now has a new book out called "American Sonnets For My Past And Future Assassin," and here to talk with us about it is our reviewer Tess Taylor. Copyright © 2018 NPR. SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Right. TAYLOR: The sonnets themselves have all of these different contents within them, but he's basically pointing to the force of American racial violence and sort of how repetitive it is. In his poems, in which he occasionally invents formal constraints, Hayes considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. SHAPIRO: And the fact that he refers to my past and future assassin suggests that this is something perpetual in America that won't go away. TAYLOR: Yeah. You say it's really inventive. Each one is called "American Sonnet For My Past And Future Assassin" - almost identical as the title of the collection. And there's a way that it changes slightly, and then there's a way that it's kind of relentless. TAYLOR: Well, again, it's interesting in that poem that I just read where he says, assassin, you are a mystery to me, I say to my reflection sometimes. On Friday, February 1 at 7 pm, Terrance will read from and discuss his work, in the context of using personal narratives to share our stories. And somehow, I think it's a form that is able to capture and refract, like, the mysterious forcefulness of American violence right now. I mean, I can't actually remember another book that does this, where every single poem has the same title for an entire collection. SHAPIRO: It seems like some of these poems are really grounded in American life today. As part of Charlotte Lit’s Beautiful Truth initiative, renowned poet Terrance Hayes will be here for two days of events. The poet Terrance Hayes first arrived on the scene in 1999 with a book called "Muscular Music." Like, one of these sonnets begins, (reading) a remix of "Pony" by Ginuwine plays while half a dozen beautiful black men strut on stage wearing translucent black housecoats, then pause with their backs to us before a slow twerking as half a dozen beautiful black women walk on stage in sharp alabaster tuxedos and surgical masks. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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