HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Barker Center - 12 Quincy Street - Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Tel: Fax: ELISA NEW Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature November 25, 2018 Dear Ms. Knowles-Carter, I am writing now to invite you to be a featured guest of Poetry in America (poetryinamerica.org). Poetry in America's first season's guests included Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Cynthia Nixon, Shaquille O'Neal, Yo Yo Ma, Samantha Power, Herbie Hancock, John McCain, Nas, Angela Duckworth, Bono, Regina Spektor, Frank Gehry, Stuart Weitzman, E.O. Wilson, and many others. Seasons Two and Three will feature just as distinguished a line up. The series airs on public television stations everywhere, streams via Amazon Prime and other streaming services, and it is now also airing on a variety of domestic and international airlines. The poem we'd read and interpret together is by the contemporary poet Evie Shockley, and it's called "you can say that again, billie." It's a brilliant and beautiful poem that speaks back to Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and evokes a whole history of gender and race in the American South. You are the ideal reader for this poem. We would use what we filmed together in an upcoming season of Poetry in America. We would also use the content in materials that we are creating for K-12 classrooms in partnership with Harvard. Everything we create would be educational and non-commercial. Thank you for considering this request. I would be very honored to work with you. Sincerely, Elisa New Director and Host of Poetry in America Powell M. Cabot Professor, Harvard HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029298