Claudia Rankine, poet

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist and playwright. She is best known for her book Citizen: An American Lyric which combines short stories about everyday injustices experienced by people of colour with poems telling the stories of black men who died during confrontations with the police. The book won several awards in the US and the UK’s Forward Prize for best collection in 2015. Claudia was born in Kingston, Jamaica and at seven followed her parents to New York City where they had emigrated some years before. After graduating from university in 1993, she won a poetry prize for her thesis which became her first book – Nothing in Nature is Private. In addition to her poetry Claudia has written three plays and has taught at several universities including Yale and New York University. In 2016 she won a prestigious ‘Genius Grant’ from the MacArthur Fellowship which celebrates intellectual and artistic achievement and awards its winners hundreds of thousands of dollars. She used the money to co-found the Racial Imaginary Institute which interrogates notions of race and whiteness. Claudia lives in Connecticut with her husband, the photographer and filmmaker John Lucas. DISC ONE: Good as Hell - Lizzo DISC TWO: Stir It Up - Bob Marley & The Wailers DISC THREE: Nightshift - Commodores DISC FOUR: More Than This - Roxy Music DISC FIVE: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (I Love You Baby) - Lauryn Hill DISC SIX: Kiss - Prince & The Revolution DISC SEVEN: My Favorite Things - John Coltrane DISC EIGHT: The Rhythm Of The Night - Corona BOOK CHOICE: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner LUXURY ITEM: A solar powered television, playing tennis matches CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Good as Hell - Lizzo Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'd just like to tell you about a podcast that I've been doing with my friend Brian Cox.
0:04.8	I'm Robinins. Welcome to The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:07.2	What we're doing in this new series, Sharks, fungi, bees versus wasps.
0:11.8	We're going to explain how bees explode, why wasps don't explode,
0:15.0	before we then climb into a Supervolcano metaphorically.
0:18.2	So, if you'd like to hear about the magnificence and strangeness of the universe
0:22.4	and all the wonders that lie within, listen to The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:25.2	And you can listen to the whole series before anyone else
0:27.8	when you listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.8	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:34.8	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
0:38.8	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury
0:42.8	they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:46.8	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:50.8	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:58.8	Music
1:14.8	My cast away this week is the poet, essayist and playwright, Claudia Rankin.
1:19.8	She was born in Jamaica and grew up in Kingston and New York.
1:23.8	Her love of poetry dates back to her childhood,
1:25.8	when she won a lollipop for reciting Emily Dickensons
1:28.8	because I could not stop for death.
1:30.8	She's best known for her book Citizen, an American lyric,
	...

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