Robert Pinsky
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Poetry

Robert Pinsky

Past Event: Friday, October 15, 2010

At Benaroya Hall — Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

Co-Presented by Earshot Jazz Festival.

As a teenager, Robert Pinsky played the saxophone and dreamt of becoming a jazz musician. As an award-winning poet, he has emphasized the relationship between poetry and jazz. Pinsky’s reading will be a collaboration with Earshot Jazz Festival and will feature local musicians Marc Seales on piano and Paul Gabrielson on bass.

TICKET BUYERS AND SUBSCRIBERS WHO PURCHASE PATRON LEVEL SEATS ARE INVITED TO A SPECIAL RECEPTION WITH ROBERT PINSKY PRIOR TO THE EVENT FROM 6:00-7:00PM

“In American culture,“ Pinsky says, “poetry and jazz are kind of advance scouts, making discoveries and innovations that are incorporated into other forms, sometimes softened or diluted a little. Poetry is the most vocal and musical verbal art, short of actual song.”

Pinsky’s poems appear in magazines such as The New YorkerThe Atlantic MonthlyThe Threepenny ReviewAmerican Poetry Review, and frequently in The Best American Poetryanthologies. His poems have earned praise for their wild musical energy, vitality, and ambitious range. The Boston Globe wrote of Pinsky that “no living poet has greater reach of imagination.” His volumeThe Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996 was a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Pinsky’s Tanner Lectures at Princeton University were published as Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry. He has written six books of verse, most recently Gulf Music: Poems, as well as prose on the subject of poetry, including Poetry and the World and The Sounds of Poetry. Pinsky is also a translator, perhaps best known for The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation.

Robert Pinsky served an unprecedented three terms as United States Poet Laureate, the public ambassador for poetry. He founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans of all ages shared poems that were significant for them. The project documented the presence of poetry in the American cultural landscape. Of the project, Pinsky says “The Favorite Poem Project demonstrates that there is more circulation of poetry and more life of poetry than there might seem with the stereotype, the readings are very moving.”

Pinsky appears regularly on PBS’s The PBS NewsHour. He writes the weekly “Poet’s Choice” column for The Washington Post and is the poetry editor for Slate. In 1999 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is one of the few members to have appeared on “The Simpsons.” Pinsky is the winner of the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, and the 2008 Theodore M. Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, among many others. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife Ellen and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

Selected WorkPoetryThe Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996 (1997)Gulf Music: Poems (2008)Jersey Rain: Poems (2001)Americans’ Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology (editor, with Favorite Poem Project (U. S.) and Maggie Dietz, 1999)The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide (1999)The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996 (1997)The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation (translator, with Michael Mazur, 1996)

ProseThe Life of David (2005)Poetry and the World (1988)The Situation of Poetry (1978)

LinksInterview (Every Writer’s Resource, September 2008)http://www.everywritersresource.com/pinsky.html

Interview (The Cortland Review, March 1998)http://www.cortlandreview.com/pinsky.htm Favorite Poem Project, founded by Robert Pinsky as U.S. Poet Laureatehttp://www.favoritepoem.org/ Biography with full bibliography (Poetry Foundation)http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=5406         Essential Pleasures: Robert Pinsky’s column on Poems Out Loud (April 2009)http://poemsoutloud.net/poets/poet/robert_pinsky/ Robert Pinsky on Jazz (The Boston Globe, March 2010)http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/03/05/robert_pinsky_improvises_at_jazz_festival/Literary\Arts Series, Literary legend John Updike discusses his work with fellow writer David Guterson and Seattle Art Museum Curator of American Art Patricia Junker. Photo by Libby Lewis

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.