In July of 2015, American poetry lost an important voice with the death of Samuel W. Allen. In this footage, available online for the first time, Allen reads his poem “Harriet Tubman” at the 1994 Furious Flower Poetry Conference. After his reading, Allen discusses the reciprocal relationship between the artist and the reader with poet and essayist Jerry Ward, Jr.

This footage is from “Furious Flower I,” a video anthology of poets produced by the Furious Flower Poetry Center (www.jmu.edu/furiousflower)