From Slam to Hip-Hop, from performance poetry to spoken word, Bob Holman has been a central figure in the reemergence of poetry in American culture. The series he produced for PBS, the United States of Poetry, features over sixty poets including Derek Walcott, Rita Dove, Czeslaw Milosz, Lou Reed and former President Jimmy Carter, as well as rappers, cowboy poets, American Sign Language poets, and Slammers. In the 1990's he co-founded the record label Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records, to bring poetry and spoken word to a much broader audience and as a consequence of all his hard work and passion he has appeared on TV: "Nightline," "Good Morning America," "ABC News Magazine," MTV's "Spoken Word Unplugged," and "The Charlie Rose Show," among others. Today he sits down with Angela McKenzie on Initiative Radio for the first time to talk about the first poem he ever penned, his move to New York City which was inspired by the Beat Generation and poets like Allan Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka; his own influence on the New York City poetry scene for the past three decades and his current projects including his founding The Bowery Poetry Club in 2002 and his goal to make it a home for emerging poets and a cultural icon in New York City's lower east side.
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