Ellen Robbins Poetry Forum Spring 2017
Sponsored by the Ulster Community College Foundation, The Poetry Forum is an annual event which brings well-known and award-winning poets to SUNY Ulster for intimate question and answer sessions, as well as a special reading of their poetry. In 2007, the program was renamed the Ellen Robbins Poetry Forum to honor the memory of Ellen Robbins (1952-2006) who was on the faculty at SUNY Ulster from 1994 until 2006, and Chair of the English department, 2002-2006.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
10:15 - 11:30
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Moderated by Lisa Bullard, SUNY Ulster Professor of English
New York City performance poet Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” He is a four-time National Poetry Slam champion and the author of four books, including “What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World.”
Since 1998, over one thousand people have become teachers after reading or listening to Taylor Mali’s passionate poems about his experiences teaching middle school, high school, and college. To mark the achievement, he donated 12 inches of his hair to the American Cancer Society.
Recording of Taylor Mali at Ulster April 2017
- 'Teachers Make' A Difference, What About You?'All Things Considered, NPR.org
- Review of What Teachers MakeKirkus Reviews
Bouquet of Red FlagsCall Number: 811 M2511bPublication Date: 2014Bouquet of Red Flags is laced with more than the typical LSD (love, sex, divorce) of modern poetry. Here lie poems that elevate the overlooked daily miracles of coincidence ("The Luck I Crave") as well as the blessings of loss and longing ("Love as a Form of Diving").
What Teachers MakeCall Number: 371.1 M2511Publication Date: 2013Taylor Mali inspired millions with his original poem 'What Teachers Make.' Mali's poem has become so well-known and circulated that it's almost taken on a life of its own, and it is the inspiration for this series of powerful, touching, insightful essays based on all the moments the poem captures.
What Learning LeavesCall Number: 811 M2511wPublication Date: 2013"What Learning Leaves" includes many of Mali's greatest hits, including "Like Lilly Like Wilson," "Totally L Whatever," and "What Teachers Make," which has been viewed on YouTube over five million times and is called "the most forwarded poem in the world."
The Last Time as We Are [SUNY Ulster users only]Call Number: Ebsco
Publication Date: 2009You don't need a classroom to be a teacher, and you don't need to be a teacher to help someone learn a lesson. Taylor Mali's poetry explores this truth in entertaining and plainspoken ways because "the last thing this world needs is another poem" ("The Call to What We Know"). Whether discussing the language of love or the love of language, the poems contained in The Last Time As We Are prove that "He who dares to teach must never cease to learn."
Previous Poets include: Aja Monet, Tina Chang, Richard Blanco, Jorie Graham, Michael Dickman, Ted Kooser, Charles Simic, Naomi Shihab Nye, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jane Hirshfield, Michael McClure, Marge Piercy, Kenneth Koch, Robert Creeley, Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, Donald Hall, Maxine Kumin, Carolyn Forché, Sharon Olds