Former Poet Laureate Philip Levine to Visit Moses Brown School
Philip Levine will visit on Thursday, May 1, reading his poetry to students in the afternoon and to the community at 7:00 p.m. This year’s visiting poet presentation is the culminating event of a new MB poetry initiative. The evening reading is open to the public free of charge, at 7:00 p.m. in Alumni Hall at Moses Brown, 250 Lloyd Avenue, Providence.
Philip Levine was U.S. Poet Laureate in 2011-2012, and is considered one of America’s great narrative and urban poets. His honors include the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award (twice), the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Wallace Stevens Award. He was born in 1928 to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Detroit, a city that has inspired much of his writing. Levine’s plainspoken lyricism champions the art of telling “the simple truth.” His 20 collections of poetry include News Of The World, What Work Is, and The Simple Truth, which won the Pulitzer.
Moses Brown’s annual visiting poet series expands this year to inaugurate a school-wide poetry initiative, sponsored by the English Department, Parents’ Association and All-School Diversity Committee. “This initiative reflects Moses Brown’s new strategic plan, which emphasizes creative problem solving, global awareness and ethical leadership,” says Matt Glendinning, Head of School. “By encouraging students to observe, decode and analyze, poetry study helps students think differently about themselves and the world around them.”
