The art of public speaking and spoken word

On today's show we will be interviewing Reuben Jackson, former archivist of the Duke Ellington collection at the Smithsonian institute. His poems have been published in 21 anthologies, journals such as Chelsea, Gargoyle, Callaloo and The Indiana Review, and a volume of verse entitled fingering the keys, which won the 1992 Columbia Book Award. He now teaches writing and poetry to middle school children in Washington DC and we are going to talk to him about the art of performing poetry...why do some people capture an audience and why do some fail?