Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan among readers at poetry tribute

Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan and Grammy-winning jazz performer Cecile McLorin Salvant are among the readers, and singers, at a Lincoln Center tribute to poetry. (Photo: Meg Ryan/ Facebook)

NEW YORK—Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan and Grammy-winning jazz performer Cecile McLorin Salvant are among the readers, and singers, at a Lincoln Center tribute to poetry.

The 15th annual presentation of Poetry & the Creative Mind Wednesday night also features Amanda Palmer, Maurice Hines and several others reading works by such poets as Walt Whitman and Nikki Giovanni –and sometimes throwing in a little music.

Palmer brought a ukulele on stage, while Salvant’s voice was the only instrument she needed. Hines was shaking and twitching and nearly started dancing as he read Maya Angelou’s “Ain’t I Bad.”

The sold-out event at Avery Fisher Hall is presented by the Academy of American Poets, in honour of National Poetry Month.