Educational Materials

Then U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky with Bill Moyers at the 1998 Festival.The Dodge Poetry Festival has been featured in five PBS television series, including four hosted by Bill Moyers, and two public radio series. A wide range of these programs are available for classroom use.

Two best-selling books,The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets, edited by Festival Director James Haba, and Fooling With Words evolved out of interviews conducted by Bill Moyers with poets appearing at the Dodge Poetry Festival.

Video, Print and Audio materials developed out of Festival and Program activities over the years are described below, along with information on how to obtain those that are still available.

VIDEO:

Fooling With Words, With Bill Moyers
Fooling with Words is Bill Moyers’ two-hour special from the 1998 Dodge Poetry Festival. Fooling with Words features Amiri Baraka, Coleman Barks, Lucille Clifton, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Mark Doty, Deborah Garrison, Jane Hirshfield, Stanley Kunitz, Kurtis Lamkin, Shirley Geo-lin Lim, Paul Muldoon, Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy, and Robert Pinsky. It also includes readings by Denise Duhamel, David Gonzalez, Bob Holman, Galway Kinnell, Samuel Menashe, W.S. Merwin and Joe Weil.
For more information, and to access the online version of the Fooling With Words Teacher’s Guide, go directly to WNET’s website:www.wnet.org/foolingwithwords/.

Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

Sounds of Poetry, With Bill Moyers
Sounds of Poetry, also with Bill Moyers, consists of 9 supplemental half-hour programs offering additional poems by and interviews with the poets featured in Fooling With Words.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

Poetry Heaven
Poetry Heaven is a three-hour television series shot at the 1996 Dodge Poetry Festival. It features a broad range of Festival events and activities. Poets include Yehuda Amichai, Robert Creeley, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Allen Ginsberg, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Louis Jenkins, Li-Young Lee, Le Thi Diem Thuy, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, Thylias Moss, Carol Muske, Pattiann Rogers, Hal Sirowitz, Gerald Stern, and Jean Valentine.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

The Language of Life, with Bill Moyers
The Language of Life is an eight-hour television series shot at the 1994 Dodge Poetry Festival. It features interviews and readings by eighteen poets. These include: Claribel Alegria, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, Marilyn Chin, Lucille Clifton, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Carolyn Forche, Michael Harper, Robert Hass, Linda McCarriston, Sandra McPherson, David Mura, Naomi Shihab Nye, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, Sekou Sundiata, and Daisy Zamora.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

The Power of the Word, with Bill Moyers
The Power of the Word is a six-hour television series shot, in part, at the 1988 Dodge Poetry Festival and broadcast in 1989. The series features readings and interviews. Poets include Jim Autry, Robert Bly, Lucille Clifton, Joy Harjo, Garret Hongo, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, Li-Young Lee, W.S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, William Stafford, Gerald Stern, Mary Tall Mountain, and QuincyTroupe.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

A Life Together, Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon
A Life Together is a one-hour television program which was broadcast as the final part of Bill Moyers’ Journal in 1993. It features footage from the 1992 Dodge Poetry Festival as well as readings and interviews at the poets’ home in New Hampshire.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

Rita Dove, Poet Laureate
Rita Dove, Poet Laureate is a one-hour television program and another installment of Bill Moyers’ Journal, broadcast in 1994. It features readings at the 1992 Dodge Poetry Festival and in the Poet-Laureate’s office at the Library of Congress.
Available through Films for the Humanities and Sciences by calling 1-800-257-5126 or by visiting their website at www.films.com.

Poets in Person
Poets in Person is a one-hour television program made of footage shot at the 1986 Dodge Poetry Festival and broadcast on 40 PBS stations in 1988. Poets include Allen Ginsberg, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, Sharon Olds, Sonia Sanchez, Ed Sanders, Gary Snyder, and Derek Walcott.
No Longer Available.

PRINT:

Festival Poetry Kit for Teachers

During High School Student Day and Teacher Day of each Festival, the Festival Poetry Kit for Teachers is distributed while supplies last to all teachers in attendance.

Teaching for Delight
A compilation of poems and suggestions for discussion offered by 26 Dodge Poets.
Supplies are limited. To request a copy, contact festival@grdodge.org.

Poetry Heaven Teacher’s Guide
Poems, questions, and discussion ideas for use with Juan Mandelbaum’s three-hour television series shot at the 1996 Dodge Poetry Festival.
Supplies are limited. To request a copy, contact festival@grdodge.org.

Fooling With Words: A Celebration of Poets and their Craft, with Bill Moyers Consists of interviews and poems by 11 of the 22 Featured Poets at the 1998 Dodge Poetry Festival: Stanley Kunitz, Coleman Barks,Lorna Dee Cervantes, Mark Doty, Deborah Garrison, Jane Hirshfield, Kurtis Lamkin, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Paul Muldoon, Marge Piercy and Robert Pinsky.

Contact your local bookseller.

The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets, with Bill Moyers
This Doubleday volume (1995) edited by Festival and Program Coordinator, James Haba, consists of interviews and poems by 30 of the 34 poets featured in the two single television programs, A Life Together, Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon (1993) and Rita Dove, Poet Laureate (1994), and the two television series, The Power of the Word (1989) and The Language of Life (1995), which Bill Moyers made in relation to the Dodge Poetry Festivals. The 4 poets not interviewed by Bill Moyers but included in The Power of the Word are each represented by a comment about poetry and a single poem.
Contact your local bookseller.

Suggested Activities for National Poetry Month
Four dozen suggested activities for the individual teacher, for the classroom, for the school, and for the community.
Out of Print

The Power of the Word Teacher’s Guide
Poems, questions, and discussion ideas for use with Bill Moyers’ six-hour 1989 television series filmed in part at the 1988 Dodge Poetry Festival.
Out of Print

The Language of Life Teacher’s Guide
Poems, questions, and discussion ideas for use with Bill Moyers’ eight-hour television series filmed at the 1994 Dodge Poetry Festival.
Out of Print

AUDIO:

The Poet’s Voice
Twenty half-hour radio programs made largely from 1986 Dodge Poetry Festival recordings and broadcast on WBGO-FM in Newark during 1988. Poets include Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Stephen Dunn, Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Kizer, Sharon Olds, Gary Snyder, William Stafford, and Derek Walcott.
No Longer Available.

A Festival of Poets I
A Festival of Poets I is a two-hour radio program from the 1992 Dodge Poetry Festival prepared and broadcast by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia. Poets include Lucille Clifton, Donald Hall, Lance Henson, Jane Kenyon, Vikram Seth, and Luci Tapahanso.
No Longer Available.

A Festival of Poets II is a one-hour radio program from the 1994 Dodge PoetryFestival prepared and broadcast by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia. Poets include Marilyn Chin, Marie Howe, Linda McCarriston, Sekou Sundiata, and Daisy Zamora.
No Longer Available.