Kwame Dawes on Breaking in to the Theater

The University of Nebraska at Kearney’s new hire in poetry does not hide the fact that he started out as a hacker:

Poet Kwame Dawes shared selections from his collection of 15 published books along with the stories behind the poems Thursday.

“I learned to write for the theater by befriending all the janitors and security guys in the theaters in Kingston,” the former Jamaican resident said. “I couldn’t afford tickets, so the janitors would let me in so I could watch rehearsals.”

Here is his poem “Storm” for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

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