Listen to a recording of Adrienne Rich reading her letter to Jane Alexander.īorn in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 16, 1929, Rich was one of American poetry's foremost feminist and liberal voices. In her typical hard-hitting style, Rich wrote that, "art-in my own case the art of poetry-means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage." Both the national recognition and Rich's principled refusal were emblematic of the place this poet has come to occupy in American culture. To accept the award, she felt, would be hypocritical in view of the country's widening socio-economic gap. On July 3, 1997, poet Adrienne Rich informed Jane Alexander, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would not accept the National Medal for the Arts.
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