In an effort to promote the Boston University creative writing program, BU’s annual Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture series welcomed Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Levine to the podium Friday night to read his most recent collection, Breath.
“It calls attention to one area where BU as a university has always been very distinguished,” creative writing professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Pinsky said. “We have a vital creative writing program and guest poets can sense it.”
Between poems, Levine explained each reading and discussed how his past impacts his writing. The crowd of about 100 people was split between faculty and students, many of which were familiar with his work.
“It was really good to hear Levine,” creative writing graduate student Sase Persaud said. “His humor is tremendous. The entire audience was enthralled.”
Levine said the positive feedback from the crowd helped his performance.
“I try to do my best,” he said. “Some days are better than others, but it depends on the audience.”
Levine said recent readings he attended in New York City and Canton, Ohio were more difficult because the audience was less appreciative. “I read better here,” he said. “I liked the audience better.”
Levine’s readings were centered around life experiences, some of which he said where inspired by his childhood in Detroit. The poem “Our Reds,” recalled his Communist friends from City College of Detroit.
“There were idiots on both sides, and about in equal proportion,” Levine said. “But they were wonderful because they were so passionate about their stupid ideas.”
Levine said he agreed to read as part of the lecture series because of his respect for the university’s writing program.
“They have some very good poets here,” he said. “I like them and wanted to talk to them.”
In addition to Levine’s readings, Creative Writing Director Leslie Epstein read his work “Ethiopia: A Prologue,” which describes the conquest of the Jews at the hands of the Romans and contrasted it with the more recent conquest of the Ethiopians by Benito Mussolini’s forces in the 1930s. Recent BU graduate Olette Trouvé also read from her book A Foothold at the event.
-Bryan Cole
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