Rita Dove's "Black Billy Waters, at His Pitch" Poetry Moment

Rita Dove often chooses historical figures as subjects of her poetry. In this Poetry Moment, we meet Black Billy Waters, a famous street performer in 1800s London.
"Black Billy Waters, at His Pitch" is from Dove's book Sonatta Mulattica, which a New Yorker reviewer called "a virtuosic treatment of a virtuoso’s life." Most of Dove's book is about George Bridgetower, a biracial violinist who performed at the highest levels in 1800s Europe, but he often passed Black Billy Waters on his way to perform at the Adelphi Theatre.
Chania Hudson reads an introduction to offer context and background on the poet and the poem.
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