Dana Gioia -- served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 until January 2009. An internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet, Dana currently serves as Director of the Harman-Eisner Program in the Arts at the Aspen Institute.
Dana has published three full-length collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon, which won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter? is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and elsewhere.
In his Video Op-Ed, Dana speaks about the extensive research NEA has done that demonstrates that the more people read, the more involved they become in their communities, and the more engaged they become as citizens -- due to the way reading helps develop our inner lives which, in turn, opens our eyes to the inner lives of others -- building empathy and a desire to connect and care. As such, Dana regards reading as a basic building block of democracy.
He also touches on the media's role in the dumbing down of the culture and how this adversely affects the cultivation of a lifelong habit of reading. He closes by reinforcing the notion that a free society requires informed and engaged citizens -- and the only way to create and maintain the effectiveness of such citizens is by reading.
Reading & Civic Engagement
(TRT - 5:40)
by Dana Gioia