Скачать или смотреть Joy, poems and basketball

Ross Gay, the New York Times-bestselling poet and essayist, talks with Steven Leyva about his writing habits, the physical similarity of writing and basketball, and his Philly swagger. An athlete and coach all his life—Gay’s next book is about dunking—Gay said his writing and teaching habits were based in his physical training. Dribbling a ball for 30 minutes with each hand every day is like the practice of writing an essay about delight by hand every day for a year, he said. “The pleasure to me about writing—period--is to try to be in kind of communion with my wonder, to be ‘not knowing.’ A revealing oneself to oneself. In a way it can be tiny and shocking. That feels interesting to me to be unmade. … that you started out one thing and you were not that after it.” Gay reads “Let Me Be,” from Against Which, and “Feet,” from Unabashed Gratitude. Recorded Nov. 7, 2025. For more information about HoCoPoLitSo’s live or recorded programs, visit www.hocopolitso.org.