"United States of Poetry"
In 1996 Holman, director Mark Pellington, and producer Joshua Blum teamed up to create "The United States of Poetry," a critically acclaimed five-part PBS television series. The program featured over 60 poets, rappers, cowboy poets, American Sign Language poets, and Slammers. In a review for the New York Times, John J. O’Connor wrote, “Wandering all over the map, geographical and literary, ‘The United States of Poetry’ unabashedly celebrates the Word. These days, that's downright courageous.” Identified as “the brainchild of Bob Holman,” the series is described as “an excellent presentation of 20th Century poetry” on the website of the Academy of American Poets.
The television series was accompanied into the market-place by a book and a soundtrack recording. The book, published by Abrams Books, was co-edited by Holman, Pellington, and Blum, with an introduction by Holman.
The soundtrack, underscored with music by tomandandy, was issued by Mouth Almighty Records. In a review for the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, “The illustrates how thoroughly the lines between literature and popular culture have dissolved over the last 40 years.”
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