NEW YORK (AP) – Gloria Steinem, Nick Cannon and Holly Hunter were among the readers. Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were among the poets they read.
The 13th annual “Poetry & and the Creative Mind” benefit was held Wednesday night at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. With an eclectic group of celebrity readers drawn from various arts and other parts of the culture, the event helped celebrate National Poetry Month and raise money for the nonprofit Academy of American Poets. Guests ranged from Steinem and Cannon to musicians Sam Beam and Kris Kristofferson to actresses Hunter and Debra Winger to chef and restaurateur Anita Lo.
The host, author and longtime book designer Chip Kidd, asked the audience not to clap until all 11 readers were introduced at the beginning, but a few claps broke out anyway for Cannon and the applause was even louder for Steinem. She turned 81 last month, but the longtime feminist looked more than ready to fulfill her vow of living to 100 and upon her turn to recite approached the podium with a youthful stride.
“My name is Gloria Steinem” began the guest least in need of introduction, to yet another ovation. “I just wanted to say thank you to you, to all of you who have taken poetry out of the place that I thought it was when I was growing up in Toledo, Ohio.
“I thought it was an obscure room, with three white guys who wore tweed jackets, smoked unlit pipes, had suede patches on their elbows under which there was no hole – that it was completely, utterly removed from my life.”