We take the risk of being honest, of speaking truth, when it matters, when we care. In this sense, the act of speaking a hard truth is an act of compassion. If we're making a sincere effort at understanding and communicating, we must summon our own capacity for empathy, which requires an act of the imagination. This is how we imagine another’s inner life or invite another to imagine our own. Zeina Hashem Beck, Martín Espada, Paisley Rekdal and Seema Reza discuss how poetry does this for both the poet and the reader, whether approaching personal, political, spiritual, social or emotional truths. After the pre-recorded conversation, the poets engage in live Q&A with the Festival audience. Moderated by Martin J. Farawell.
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