Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Martín Espada

2026-10-05 · 56 min · episode 23 · 14 entities

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→ hosted by On Being Studios company

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mentioned Society & Culture concept

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mentioned Arts concept

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mentioned Religion & Spirituality concept

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mentioned Martín Espada concept

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Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Martín Espada
discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Society & Culture
discusses Arts concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Arts
discusses Religion & Spirituality concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Religion & Spirituality
discusses Relationships concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Relationships
discusses Books concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Books
discusses Spirituality concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Spirituality

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mentioned On Being Studios company

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hosted by On Being Studios company

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evidence rules-v5
Feed author/publisher: On Being Studios

Episode description as stored

“Politics by themselves are necessary but not sufficient … [and] poetry by itself is necessary but not sufficient. We must find a way to bring them together,” says Martín Espada, a poet and professor. With crystalline language, an all-seeing gaze, and innate musicality, he writes poems that show us the world and people as they are — sometimes violent, vicious, unjust, but also tender, tenacious, courageous. In this potent conversation recorded for the 2026 Greenbelt Festival in Kettering, England, he reads from his work, and he and Pádraig Ó Tuama discuss the resistance he’s met when mixing politics and poetry, his parents as influences and teachers, and how his writing (and editing) have changed over time. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack , read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns , or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes . Martín Espada was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has written more than 20 books of poetry and nonfiction and translation. His collection Floaters won the National Book Award for Poetry, and he is a Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His most recent collection is Jailbreak of Sparrows . Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.