Series: Poetry Breaks
Program: Poetry Breaks II, Thylias Moss
Date: 1993-01-01
Subject: Oral interpretation of poetry; Readings
Copyright Holder: Leita Hagemann Luchetti and WGBH Educational Foundation

Clip Description
Thylias Moss, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Oberlin College, authored six volumes of poetry and a volume of autobiographical prose between 1983 and 1998. She has received numerous grants and awards, including a 1989 NEA grant, a 1987 Artists' Fellowship from the Artists' Foundation of Massachusetts, and a Pushcart Prize. Moss was asked to read her poems for "Poetry Breaks" while she was living in Massachusetts and teaching English at Phillips Andover Academy. Her published works are Hosiery Seams on a Bowlegged Woman, Pyramid of Bone (1989), At Redbones, I Want to Be (1993), Rainbow Remnants in a Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky, and Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress (1998).

Thylias Moss introduces and reads her poems and answers questions concerning her life and work. The work was filmed at Phillips Andover Academy. Multiple takes of the following poems appear on the source tapes of original footage:

"Rush Hour"
"Spring Cleaning at the Lewiston Police Station"
"All Is Not Lost When Dreams Are"
"Sunrise Comes to Second Avenue"
"The Undertaker's Daughter Feels Neglect"
"Passover Poem"
"One-Legged Cook"
"The Day Before Kindergarten: Taluca, Alabama, 1959"

Multiple takes of these poems and Moss' answers to the following questions appear on the source tapes of original footage:
Where do you get your ideas from?
What's the life of a writer like?
When did you start writing poetry?
Where do poems get meaning?
The "Poetry Breaks" series intends to master these into a tape for use in schools and libraries as funds become available.

Produced and directed by Leita Hagemann Luchetti.

"Poetry Breaks," conceived by Leita Hagemann Luchetti and co-produced by Luchetti and WGBH New Television Workshop, is an ongoing series of over 100 thirty-second to four-minute spots presenting internationally known poets reading their work on location. These have aired individually on WGBH and public television stations across the country. The Workshop collaborated with Luchetti until its closing in 1993, at which point the works became co-productions of Luchetti and the larger WGBH Foundation.

"Poetry Breaks II," produced from 1991-1994, began airing on WGBH-TV in 1994, and was also broadcast by dozens of other public television stations throughout the country starting in 1994. Between 1995 and 1997, three new poets were taped for Poetry Breaks III.

Program Description
Thylias Moss, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Oberlin College, authored six volumes of poetry and a volume of autobiographical prose between 1983 and 1998. She has received numerous grants and awards, including a 1989 NEA grant, a 1987 Artists' Fellowship from the Artists' Foundation of Massachusetts, and a Pushcart Prize. Moss was asked to read her poems for "Poetry Breaks" while she was living in Massachusetts and teaching English at Phillips Andover Academy. Her published works are Hosiery Seams on a Bowlegged Woman, Pyramid of Bone (1989), At Redbones, I Want to Be (1993), Rainbow Remnants in a Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky, and Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress (1998).

Thylias Moss introduces and reads her poems and answers questions concerning her life and work. The work was filmed at Phillips Andover Academy. Multiple takes of the following poems appear on the source tapes of original footage:

"Rush Hour"
"Spring Cleaning at the Lewiston Police Station"
"All Is Not Lost When Dreams Are"
"Sunrise Comes to Second Avenue"
"The Undertaker's Daughter Feels Neglect"
"Passover Poem"
"One-Legged Cook"
"The Day Before Kindergarten: Taluca, Alabama, 1959"

Multiple takes of these poems and Moss' answers to the following questions appear on the source tapes of original footage:
Where do you get your ideas from?
What's the life of a writer like?
When did you start writing poetry?
Where do poems get meaning?
The "Poetry Breaks" series intends to master these into a tape for use in schools and libraries as funds become available.

Produced and directed by Leita Hagemann Luchetti.

"Poetry Breaks," conceived by Leita Hagemann Luchetti and co-produced by Luchetti and WGBH New Television Workshop, is an ongoing series of over 100 thirty-second to four-minute spots presenting internationally known poets reading their work on location. These have aired individually on WGBH and public television stations across the country. The Workshop collaborated with Luchetti until its closing in 1993, at which point the works became co-productions of Luchetti and the larger WGBH Foundation.

"Poetry Breaks II," produced from 1991-1994, began airing on WGBH-TV in 1994, and was also broadcast by dozens of other public television stations throughout the country starting in 1994. Between 1995 and 1997, three new poets were taped for Poetry Breaks III.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Poetry318.HTML