Episode
Forum from the Archives: Poet Kevin Young Explores History and Loss in His Newest Collection, "Night Watch"
- Podcast
- KQED's Forum
- Published
- Jun 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3292
- Processing state
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Summary
New Yorker magazine poetry editor Kevin Young has called poetry "the most efficient mode of time travel." In his new volume of poems "Night Watch,” Young, a literary hyphenate who edits, writes and teaches, takes readers on a journey of loss and re-emergence. From his cycle of poems about a conjoined pair of twins born into slavery and kidnapped to a carnival freak show to his meditations on grief set to the phases of the moon, Young’s spare and incisive language provides the reader passage through history and memory. On this Juneteenth holiday we listen back on our conversation with Young about his collection and what it means to be a poet today. Guests: Kevin Young, poet and author; Young's latest poetry collection is "Night Watch"; Young has been the poetry editor for the New Yorker since 2017 and from 2021 to 2025 served as the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices