Class: Politics and Poetry in the Capital City

Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/04/2021 - 02/18/2021
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

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Enhance your understanding of Washington, D.C.’s rich political, economic, and social history through a close reading of poems by authors who lived in the city. Using Kim’s acclaimed new anthology By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of Our Nation’s Capital as our text, we will discover how the poetry of the capital city has reflected the nation’s major upheavals. Class one will examine the forces that made D.C. the most significant site in the nation for the internal trade of enslaved people—and the poetry of the abolitionist movement that arose in response. Class two will look at the explosion of print culture in the 1800s and how that made a place for women’s voices—and how those authors used their new platforms to advocate for their autonomy. Class three will consider how the experience of WWI led directly to the growth of literary modernism, including the rise of poets of color during the Harlem Renaissance. This class takes place online on three successive Thursday afternoons. Sponsored by Politics & Prose Books, $100 fee charged, pre-registration required.