On the Beat: A Poetry Podcast

It is such a delight to have been invited to be featured on The Beat, a poetry podcast from the Knox County Public Library!

Along with two of my poems, I recorded two linked sonnets in English from a public domain poet who was also an icon of the Bengal Renaissance: Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

Choosing to read from the work of a nineteenth century poet from the non-west allows me to expand our imagination of who was writing in English in that period. It allows me to hint at the legacies and contradictions that shape literature in English—including colonialism and anticolonial resistance. It allows me to reflect on the ways in which the 'center' and the 'periphery' are unconsciously reproduced, still—such as in the bios of Dutt found online!

I hope you enjoy these readings.