Video

Revisiting the Great Migration through paintings and poetry

May 12, 2015

The Great Migration of 6 million African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North was a shift that reshaped America forever. Artist Jacob Lawrence captured that story in an epic work of art known as the Migration Series. Now all 60 of Lawrence's small paintings are on show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with new reflections by 10 poets. Jeffrey Brown reports.

Revisiting the Great Migration through paintings and poetry

Poet Phil Kaye remembers his grandfather and reimagines traditional masculinity

Kevin Young intertwines personal and public history in “Brown”

Donald Hall, 89, saw poetry as ‘school for feeling’

A poet who holds ‘the men behind the music’ accountable

How a poet purges all of the men who didn’t keep promises

In every vital moment, poetry is alive and well

This poet's guide dog helped him discover a new world

To Arizona’s first poet laureate, ‘the border is what joins us’

This poet wants brown girls to know they’re worthy of being the hero and the author

How poet Rupi Kaur became a hero to millions of young women

The practical reasons to welcome poetry into our lives

Turning silence on police shootings into poetry

How poetry can help kids turn a fear of literature into love

Poet reflects on America where ‘an angry man can shoot a teenager’

Why this poet couldn’t avoid writing about the opioid crisis

Navigating Seattle’s ever-evolving streets through poetry

For newly named U.S. poet laureate, the power of poetry is opening ourselves to others

How one poet is helping Chicago students find their voice through verse

This poet’s picnic offers a feast of words and music

Finding Emily Dickinson in the power of her poetry