A Human Eye
Essays on Art in Society, 1997-2008

Explores the complex relationship between art and social justice. This collection of essays examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. It explores from many angles how the arts of language have acted on and been shaped by their creators' worlds.

In "A Human Eye", one of America's most distinguished poets explores the complex relationship between art and social justice. Over more than three decades, Rich's essays have been praised for their lucidity, courage, and range of concerns. She examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. Beyond literary theories, she explores from many angles how the arts of language have acted on and been shaped by their creators' worlds. This powerful new collection includes a stirring response to the anthology "Iraqi Poetry Today", a critique of three classic socialist manifestos and a rereading of "The Dead Lecturer", an early volume of poems by LeRoi Jones. Rich engages the impulse to make art that both impels toward and interacts with social change, a theme she also traces through the letters of poets Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, gay and lesbian politics and poetry, and influential texts on Zionism and the Jewish diaspora.