Taarab Music from Zanzibar

Taarab is a popular style of music in East Africa.

World Books Review: Lodgings — A Generous Selection of Verse from an Intriguing Polish Poet

A problematic selection of poems from Andrzej Sosnowski, an impressive contemporary Polish poet whose writing combines antic playfulness and insistent earnestness.

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• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse magazine

World Books Review: A Glimpse of the Heart of Modern Pakistani Poetry

In all, the anthology smacks of the editors’ having taken the bland, easy way out at almost every stage. It takes second, third, closer readings to discern individuality among the Pakistani poets, and there are several lovely and powerful poems that emerge from such close reading, poems of love and politics and of faith — not the mere journal entries of so much Western verse.

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Supermarket French, Chanson French, and Lyrical Arabic

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, the French of Anna Sam and that of Juliette Greco could hardly be more different. Sam records the mendacious and the mundane that she overhears at the supermarket checkout. The French of Greco is moody and melodramatic, as befits this veteran chanteuse. Also, what got lost in translation in one of the UN Security Council’s most famous resolutions. And we hear from the founders of Meena, an Arabic-English bilingual poetry journal.
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Truck poetry in Pakistan

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Driving in Karachi’s crazy traffic can be very stressful. The roads are filled with potholes and the air pollution is choking. But amidst all this mess there is one source of pleasure – the wonderfully decorated public transport vehicles. Fahad Desmukh reports from Karachi on the poetry that adorns many vehicles in Pakistan. Download MP3 (Photo: Fahad Desmukh)
Slideshow: Ornate trucks

New recordings of Sylvia Plath

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The British Library this week brought out a new CD that features little-heard recordings of Sylvia Plath. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Karen Kukil who curates the Plath collection at Smith College in Massachusetts.

The poet of Baghdad

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Nabeel Yasin is a highly-acclaimed Iraqi poet who was blacklisted in his country in 1978 for refusing to write poems glorifying Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now three decades later he is back in his homeland where he is running for prime minister in the elections scheduled in March. Jeb Sharp talks with Yasin. Download MP3

• ‘The Poet of Baghdad’ – BBC video about Nabeel Yasin’s life
• BBC: the struggle for Iraq

World Books Review: A Crown of Thorns for Mandelstam

“The Stalin Epigram” is offered as a novelist’s homage to Osip Mandelstam, the poet who embodied both a new era in Russian poetry and the martyrdom of Russia’s intelligentsia under Stalinism. But the book turns out to be a crown of thorns, a posthumous offense to a poet who has few defenders at the ready to fence for his honor.

Shimon Peres’ poetry set to music

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Israeli President Shimon Peres celebrated his 86th birthday last week. He’s been in Israeli politics for more than half a century. And it turns out that during that whole time, he’s also been writing poems, inspired by the historical events he’s witnessed first hand. That poetry has now been set to music. Daniel Estrin will have some samples later today. Photo by Itzik Biran. >>> Watch a video about Peres’ poetry set to music.

Entire program – August 24, 2009

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Today on The World: The Obama administration plans to develop a new elite team for interrogating terrorism suspects; also, Haitian ex-pats get advice from another diaspora: the American Jewish community; and, the songs of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Global Hit: Shimon Peres

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Israeli President Shimon Peres celebrated his 86th birthday a week ago. He’s been in Israeli politics for more than half a century. Turns out, that whole time, he’s also been writing poems. And some of those poems have now been set to music. Daniel Estrin has today’s Global Hit.

The musical poetry of Shimon Peres

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For today’s Global Hit, a head-of-state turned lyricist. Israeli President Shimon Peres celebrated his 86th birthday last week. He’s been in Israeli politics for more than half a century. Turns out, that whole time, he’s also been writing poems, inspired by historical events he’s witnessed first hand.

Ode to Baghdad

Two Iraqi poets reflect on a time when Baghdad wasn’t the center of an American war, but a center of learning and culture.
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