Poetry Extra  

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

Poetry Extra: Adelia Prado - Voice of Brazil

Adelia Prado - Voice of Brazil

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Adelia Prado - Voice of Brazil

Daljit Nagra selects the very best programmes from the BBC's poetry archives.

Daljit Nagra selects Adelia Prado - Voice of Brazil.   A portrait of the Brazilian poet - discovered aged 40.  From 2016.

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC poetry archives and selects Adelia Prado - Voice of Brazil.   An immersive portrait of the Brazilian poet  who was discovered aged 40 living in provincial Minas Gerais.   

This is a rare encounter with one of Brazil’s most extraordinary poets. Adélia Prado has shunned the spotlight since her discovery in 1976 – then a 40-year-old mother of five. Now aged 80, her sensual, devout, sometimes provocative poetry is read and admired around the world. 

For this programme, in the company of her long-time translator and fellow poet Ellen Doré Watson, she invites us into her home to talk about her life and work. 

Adélia Prado was discovered by Brazil's foremost modern poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, who launched her literary career with the announcement that St Francis was dictating verses to a housewife in the backwaters of the interior state of Minas Gerais. She writes about the transcendent in ordinary life, of how the human experience is both mystical and carnal. She has been called one of the major voices of the Americas, who 'would remind you of Emily Dickinson if she didn't keep reminding you of Walt Whitman'.

With Poetic Licence, Denouement, Seduction, Neighbourhood and Day from The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado, published by Wesleyan. Copyright 1990 Adélia Prado and Ellen Doré Watson. The Mystical Rose and Spiritual Exercise from Ex-Voto: Poems of Adélia Prado, published by Tupelo Press. Copyright 2013 Adélia Prado and Ellen Doré Watson. Adélia Prado, The Mystical Rose: Selected Poems, translated by Ellen Doré Watson (Bloodaxe Books, 2014). Used with permission. 

Producer: Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

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