Liberal Arts Voices continues its coverage of this year’s Penn State Laureate, poet and Professor of English and Womens’ Studies, Robin Becker. Throughout the spring semester, Liberal Arts Voices will be collaborating with Penn State Live to cover the poems and work of Professor Becker.
In this podcast Robin Becker joins Dean Long; English major Natalie Kovak; and English graduate students Leah Huizar and William Woolfit to discuss Professor Becker’s poem “Port-au-Prince, 1960.” You can read the full version of “Port-au-Prince, 1960” on Penn State Live.
Professor Becker begins the podcast recalling her inspiration for this poem: a cruise she took with her family in the Caribbean. The group focuses on issues of race and class in the poem. Specifically, they reflect on how the speaker’s observation of racial and social disparity on this family vacation results in a kind of transformation from childhood to adulthood.
We invite you to respond to this poem or to the question that Professor asks at the end of her poem: When did you become aware of race and class as markers of economic and social divisions? What feelings can you remember experiencing?
Liberal Arts Voices:Robin Becker’s “Port-au-Prince, 1960”
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To watch a video of Professor Becker reading this poem or to read more about it, visit Penn State Live.
We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.