Product Details

• Actors: Amiri Baraka, Leonard Cohen, Wanda Coleman, Matt Cook, Johnny Depp
• Directors: Mark Pellington
• Writers: Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Czeslaw Milosz, Bob Holman
• Format: NTSC
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Bay Books Video
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004TEPL
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,498 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"If it ain't a pleasure, it ain't a poem." This groundbreaking series uses this quaint, quizzical sound bite as its introduction and motto: even at their hokiest or least comprehensible, the poems and performances in these five episodes are guaranteed never to bore. Instead of simply filming flat readings, director Mark Pellington uses hypnotic camera work and MTV-style editing to forge image, music, and poetic performance into sophisticated video vignettes. Performers run the gamut from venerable Beats Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti to urban slammers, cowboy poets, drag queens, genteel seniors, and literate preteens. A surprisingly profound President Jimmy Carter shares the screen with rock stars Lou Reed and King Missile's John S. Hall. The strongest installment is probably "A Day in the Life," organized thematically by times of day--from Peter Spiro's predawn indictment of work ("Yes, the universe is not up there / It's here, and we're in it") through Matt Cook's hysterical afternoon rant on James Joyce, the potato blight, and the metric system (filmed entirely on a strangely appropriate convenience store sidewalk) to Dennis Cooper's decidedly darker reflection on desperate young boys practicing midnight's oldest art. Throughout every episode, the series drives one lesson home: Poetry is everywhere...in bug-infested tenements and secret suburbia, creeping around the hard edges of urban Hawaii and blowing across Oklahoma's open prairie. These United States are eternally fresh and exciting. This America still has plenty of room for pioneers. --Grant Balfour

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging way to experience performance poetry!, July 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: United States of Poetry [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Produced by Bob Holman from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, this video brings poetry to life in an accessible way. It is able to live up to its name by presenting self-performed works, categorized in themes, by cowboy poets, immigrant poets, urban poets, celebrity poets (Alan Ginsburg, Lou Reed, Jimmy Carter and more), published poets and even child poets. The staging of the performances is fabulous, and the poems themselves range from inspiring to funny to poignant. I especially liked Paul Beatty, Maggie Estep, Pedro Pietri and Jimmy Carter.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Fun than MTV, June 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The United States of Poetry [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video is a collection of short films which feature poets reading their work and visual interpretation. It's well edited and at times, visually stunning. Some of the films are over-dramatic, but the readings are all superb and inspired. I recommend it highly. Lots of diversity and some very funny and touching poems of the utmost quality.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best poetry tv series yet made, February 24, 2009

By 

C. O. Aptowicz (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The United States of Poetry (DVD)

If the only televised poetry programming you have seen has been from HBO ("Russell Simmon's Presents Def Poetry") or MTV ("Spoken Word Unplugged"), then I highly recommend the PBS series "The United States of Poetry," a fantastic series celebrating American verse which was utterly ahead of its time.

"The United States of Poetry" not only emancipates poetry from the page but frees it from the traditional performance stage. Instead taking the traditional tack of filming poets doing their thing live behind a mike, visionary director Mark Pellington provides depth and contrast with creative visuals and real & poetic landscapes, allowing each poet's work to really shine. It is wonderful to see and hear work by some of America's best known poets, including Allen Ginsburg, Rita Dove, Leonard Cohen, Derek Walcott, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sandra Cisneros and Bob Holman, among many many others.

Organized by theme ("A Day in the Life," "Love and Sex," etc...), the series shows a compelling and diverse vision of American poetry. Even better, the poets are introduced only with their name and the poem's title -- no biography, titles or prizes spotlighted. Slam poets and Cowboy poets are introduced the same as Pulitzer Prize winners and U.S. poet laureates! It has a wonderfully empowering effect, allowing you to value each piece based on whether or not it resonates with you as opposed to the pedigree of its writer.

Even though it is over a decade old, I still return to this series again ang again. I am so thrilled that it is finally on DVD as my poor worn-out VHS was on its last legs. I hope the new format will inspire more people to check out this wonderful & inspiring series!