Robert Hass
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Poetry

Robert Hass

Past Event: Thursday, October 28, 2010

At Benaroya Hall — Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

Robert Hass’s poetry is celebrated for his intellect and feeling and has mapped new territories of the personal poem.

Hass was born in 1941 in San Francisco and has published many books of poetry, including Field Guide (1973), Praise (1979), Human Wishes (1989), and Sun Under Wood (1996), as well as a book of essays on poetry, Twentieth Century Pleasures (1984). Hass translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and edited several collections of poetry, including Best American Poetry (2001). His collection of poems entitled Time and Materials (2007) won both the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.

“Robert Hass’s poems have always included their author’s ‘real’ voice,” wrote Dan Chiasson in The New Yorker, “facts that one could check, tones recognizable from Hass’s excellent, often highly personal essays. Warm and credulous, even tender, Hass’s is a poetry of first names (Rachels, Earlenes, Bills, and Cheryls), men and women whose intentions have mellowed toward one another, society that has splintered off into small dinner parties and hikes. And it’s all against the big backdrop of the West Coast—marshes and quinces and loquats.”

This West Coast has served not only as backdrop but as foreground for Hass. He has been a resident of California for most of his life, a landscape that not only permeated his poetry, but has also infused his actions as a public figure. A two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, The Los Angeles Times praised his efforts in that position, stating, “Hass has significantly broadened the role of poet laureate to include not only his love for poetry but also his concern for literacy and his passion for environmentalism.” His deep commitment to these issues led him to found River of Words, an organization that promotes environmental and arts education in affiliation with the Library of Congress Center for the Book. He is also a board member of International Rivers Network and hosted the Watershed conference at the University of California, Berkeley.

Hass has been the recipient of many awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award (in 1984 and 1997), and he won the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1973. He was chosen as Educator of the Year in 1997 by the North American Association on Environmental Education and elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005. He lives in California with his wife, poet Brenda Hillman, and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

Selected Work

Poetry
Now and Then: The Poet’s Choice Columns, 1997-2000 (2007)
Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 (2007)Sun Under Wood: New Poems (1996)
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson & Issa (translator, 1994)
The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems (1989)
Human Wishes (1989)
Praise (1979)
Field Guide (1973)

Prose
20th Century Pleasures (1984)

Links
Robert Hass interview in the Houston Chronicle
What comes after a Pulitzer? More work and maybe a new stove.
Poet’s landscape of the personal and the public
The New Yorker reviews Robert Hass
Robert Hass’s ‘Time and Materials’ poems are impeccable

Event Details

Benaroya Hall — Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

200 University Street
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Transportation & Parking

This event will be held in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall. The Recital Hall is located on the upper level of Benaroya Hall, up the stairs to the left side of the Box Office. Benaroya Hall is located at 200 University Street, directly across Second Avenue from the Seattle Art Museum. The public entrance to Benaroya Hall is along Third Avenue.


By Car

  • From Southbound I-5
    Take the Union Street exit (#165B). Continue onto Union Street and proceed approximately five blocks to Second Avenue. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound I-5
    Exit left onto Seneca Street (exit #165). Proceed two blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue)
    Take the Seneca Street exit and move into the left lane. Turn left onto First Avenue and proceed one block. Take the next right (at the Hammering Man sculpture) onto University Street. Continue up the hill two blocks to Third Avenue. Turn left onto Third Avenue. Continue to the next block and turn left onto Union Street. Make the next left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Southbound Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue)
    Take the Denny Way/Downtown exit. Keep right and cross over Denny Way onto Wall Street. Proceed approximately five blocks and turn left onto Second Avenue. Continue south on Second Avenue approximately eight blocks. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.

By Public Transit (Bus & Light Rail)

Benaroya Hall is served by numerous bus routes. Digital reader boards along Third Avenue display real-time bus arrival information. For details and trip planning tools, call Metro Rider Information at 206.553.3000 (voice) or 206.684.1739 (TDD), or visit Metro online. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, served by light rail, has a stop just below the Hall (University Street Station).

Parking
The 430-car underground garage at Benaroya Hall provides direct access from the enclosed parking area into the Hall via elevators leading to The Boeing Company Gallery. Enter the garage on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street. Maximum vehicle height is 6’8″. Blink charging stations are available for electric vehicles. Visit the Benaroya Hall website for event pricing.

Parking is also available at:

  • The Cobb Building (enter on University Street between Third and Fourth Avenues).
  • The Russell Investments Center (enter on Union Street between First and Second Avenues).
  • There are many other garages within a one-block radius of Benaroya Hall, along with numerous on-street parking options.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. This option is present at every event at Benaroya Hall in our 2021/22 Season.

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video during an online event. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Benaroya Hall has an infrared hearing system, which transmits sound by light beams. Headsets are available in The Boeing Company Gallery coat check and the Head Usher stations in both lobbies.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals for both in-person and online events. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at [email protected] or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at our venues, and our venues are fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Among other features, Benaroya Hall has designated parking spaces adjacent to elevators in their parking garage. Elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, you may select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on their accessibility features, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

Gender neutral restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at [email protected], or Monday-Friday from 10:00am – 5:00pm at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.