Poetry Breaks: Martín Espada on Being a Political Poet

The Poetry Breaks series is a series of videos filmed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by creator Leita Luchetti, who co-produced the series with the WGBH New Television Workshops. Poetry Breaks features short videos of internationally renowned poets reading their work, reading the work of other poets, and discussing their takes on poetry in a variety of locations. The Academy of American Poets has partnered with Luchetti to present these videos once again.

In this video, Martín Espada discusses the notion of political poetry and what it means to him to be a "political poet."