Tracy K. Smith reads her poem “I will tell you the truth about this, I will tell you all about it,” which is included in the collection “Lines in Long Array: A Civil War Commemoration, Poems and Photographs, Past and Present.” Smith was named U.S. poet laureate on Wednesday.

From PBS NewsHour: Tracy K. Smith, a writer and teacher, is taking on a very public role as the nation’s poet laureate. Jeffrey Brown sits down with Smith to discuss how language can be a tool of revelation, her reflections on race in America, her teaching philosophy and why we still need poetry.