A panel of poets and artists discusses the power and potential of the arts both within America and throughout the world. Their conversation touches on various issues with art in America as well as the American media's presence in the world.
Bio
Jeffrey Brown
Jeffrey Brown was named a senior correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in May 2005, responsible for conducting studio discussions and reporting from the field. His primary responsibilities are in the areas of culture, arts, and the media.
Mr. Brown has profiled and interviewed dozens of leading American and international writers, musicians and other artistic figures, including Philip Roth, John Updike, Isaac Stern, Nancy Wilson, Youssou N'Dour, Mark Morris, Kevin Kline, Richard Avedon, Nicholas Kristof and George Clooney among others. In addition, he contributes stories in other areas including music, religion and science.
Prior to joining the NewsHour, Mr. Brown was a producer and writer for the Columbia University Seminars on Media & Society, an independent television production headed by Fred W. Friendly. He produced many programs for public television on a wide variety of subjects, including foreign policy, ethics, and the Constitution.
Mr. Brown earned an undergraduate degree in Classics from the University of California, Berkeley and a masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He studied law at the UC Berkeley School of Law Boalt Hall.
Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and arts leader. He currently serves as the Director of the Harman-Eisner Program in the Arts at The Aspen Institute. He is also the author of numerous books, including Interrogations at Noon (2002), which won the American Book Award in poetry, and Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was short-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Prize. A translator and opera librettist, Gioia has also edited over two dozen literary anthologies.
Gioia served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009 where he helped create the largest programs in the agency’s history, including the Big Read, Shakespeare in American Communities, and Poetry Out Loud. He also led the U.S. cultural delegation to UNESCO.
Dan Glickman
Dan Glickman became chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America in 2004.
Prior to that, he was director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
From 1995 to 2001, he served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture. Sec. Glickman also served for eighteen years in the US House of Representatives, representing the 4th Congressional District of Kansas. He was a member of the House Agriculture Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Science and Technology Committee. In addition, he chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
A former trial attorney at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, he was a partner and senior advisor to the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, DC.
Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones is the Tony Award-winning playwright and performer of Bridge & Tunnel. She recently became an ambassador for UNICEF, performing for audiences in Indonesia, Ethiopia, the Middle East, and Japan.
A 2007 Brendan Gill Prize winner, she has also received commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and the Ford Foundation and awards including an NYCLU Calloway Award for being the first artist to sue the FCC for censorship. The lawsuit reversed an indecency ruling targeting her hip-hop poem recording, Your Revolution.
A regular guest on public radio, she has also appeared on Charlie Rose, the Today Show, Now, CBS Sunday Morning, and Sesame Street as "Ms. Noodle." She is developing a feature based on her characters for HBO films.
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