As Percy Shelley once wrote, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Claudia Rankine, with her inimitable fusion of the autobiographical, lyrical, and visual, is a powerful, politically charged poet for our times. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely delves into twenty-first century America—from Iraq to prescription drugs to the crushing excess of our media-saturated existences—and delivers not only Rankine’s perceptive insights but her provocative indictment as well.

Recorded Sunday, October 16, 2011 at Harris Hall, Northwestern University.