Photo by Addison Scurlock, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
Forty years ago, Grace Cavalieri interviewed Sterling A. Brown for her radio program, “The Poet and the Poem.” Recorded live at Brown’s home in 1977 with rudimentary equipment, the recording was later restored by Mike Turpin. Cavalieri believes that this is the only extant radio show featuring Brown.
In this hour-long recording, Brown reads his poems “After Winter,” “Sister Lou,” “Odyssey of Big Boy,” and “Long Gone,” and talks about teaching, the dramatic narrative in poems, the influence of poets on his work (such as Robert Frost, Robert Burns, and Jean Toomer), and his use of folk idioms.
We note with pleasure that Grace Cavalieri wrote the proposal nominating Sterling A. Brown as the first Poet Laureate of Washington, DC, from the initiatives of E. Ethelbert Miller and James Early. The nomination was submitted to Councilwoman Hilda Mason, who ensured its passage by the DC City Council. Brown was officially appointed by Mayor Marion Barry in May 1984.
Permission to reprint provided by Grace Cavalieri, Forest Woods Media Productions.
Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate Her new books are: Sticks And Stars (for children, 2026;) Fables from Italy and beyond (2025;) The Third Voice (2025;) and Owning The Not So Distant World which won the Blue Light Book Award, (2024;) Her most recent play in NYC was “Quilting The Sun” about ex-slave Harriet Powers. She founded and still produces “the Poet and the Poem” for public radio, now from the Library of Congress celebrating 50 years on-air in 2027. Twenty-five years of her podcasts were sent to the moon on lunar codex 2023. Among her awards, are the CPB silver medal, the George Garrett Award, Bordighera Prize, Paterson Prize, two Allen Ginsberg Awards. Cavalieri is featured in 2025’s The Best American Poetry Anthology. She is an Academy of American Poets Fellow.