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In a final salute to National Poetry Month, Elizabeth Alexander talks about moving poetry away from the ivory tower and into people's lives. Alexander read a poem at President Obama's inauguration and is a professor of African-American studies at Yale University.

Daniel Chester French's solemn white marble sculpture of Lincoln has presided over history since its 1922 dedication. A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., looks at its creation.

She's played many a mom, but her real trademark is playing strong, gutsy women on screen. In an upcoming one-woman stage show, she takes on one of the gutsiest: former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Susan Stamberg sits down for a conversation with the actress, who says Richards "has captured my imagination."

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians children's books have become so popular that independent bookstores have started running day camps for children based on the series. Just like Percy Jackson, these kids' adventures come right out of Greek mythology.

A group of women who are close friends get together and regularly share intimate details about their dating lives, career ambitions and frustrations with everyday life. Although the concept sounds similar to the blockbuster movie and former television series "Sex and the City," the group is the focus of a new web series called "The Real Girls Guide to Everything Else." Host Tony Cox talks with the show's stars -- Nikki Brown, Robin Dalea, Reena Dutt and Carmen Elena Mitchell.

Avenue Q, an adult musical featuring naughty puppets, wins the prize for best new musical at Sunday night's Tony Awards. In a major upset, Idina Menzel -- who plays the green-skinned Elphaba in Wicked, a retelling of the Wizard of Oz -- wins in the toughest race of the night, best actress in a musical. Phylicia Rashad becomes the first African American to win best actress in a play for her role in a A Raisin in the Sun. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep.

In her new book, Georgetown University law professor Sheryll Cashin argues that modern segregation is often by choice -- a choice that involves finding a neighborhood that offers strong schools and safe streets. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Cashin.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visits a refugee camp and meets with government officials in Sudan. Powell says the discussions produced assurances from the Sudanese government that it would combat Arab militias that have been raping and murdering black African villagers. Fighting in the area has displaced some 1 million people in the last two years. Hear Powell and NPR's Michele Norris.

The humanitarian crisis continues amid violence in the western Darfur region of Sudan. Gun battles and ethnic cleansing have displaced villagers in the area, and many rapes have reportedly been committed by Arab militiamen on the fringes of refugee camps set up for black Africans. Hear NPR's Michele Norris and Washington Post correspondent Emily Wax.

Forty years ago this summer, civil rights activists orchestrated a massive voter registration drive aimed at African Americans in Southern states. Today, some social activists have resurrected the idea of Freedom Schools, popularized during that time to spur the voting effort by teaching classes on literacy, black history and civil rights. Matt Hackworth of KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., reports.