178 Search results for "poetry"

Why Poetry? Ten Poets and Poems To Read As We Close Out Black History Month.
by Jari Bradley During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, there were numerous online poetry readings being held for the public to attend. I was just finishing my Master of Fine Arts program after three years on the East Coast, and with all the calamity that the world felt comprised of at that time, […]
Poetry reading is up in America, but there’s still more work to be done to sustain readers
According to research from the National Endowment for the Arts, poetry readership is on the rise. A staggering 28 million adults read poetry last year, per the NEA’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts which places this number as the highest it has ever been in the last 15 years of conducting the survey. […]
Revolutionary Poetry for Edward Crawford
By Lamont Lilly Poetry has long sustained Black people. And, its role in the revolutionary work of freedom fighters cnnot be denied. These poems are meant to be angry. They are also reminders to keep pushing, keep fighting and keep supporting each other, as we all seek the liberation and justice we so deserve. The last […]
National Poetry Month: A list of young black poets on the rise
In honor of National Poetry Month, here’s a list a few great poets of our generation.
Original Poetry: Why More Guns Will Result in More Black Youth Dying
Guns don’t feel. With no rhyme or reasons or intent Guns– Kill. Habitually. Without asking names or stories. Guns Hate. Regardless of color, age, nationality or background. Guns sin. Blindly. With eyes closed.
Black History Spotlight: The Poetry of Langston Hughes
Emerging during the Harlem Rennaisance, Langston Hughes is one of the most important poetic voices of the 20th century. Honor his legacy today by checking out a few of his classic poems below, read by the man himself. “I, Too,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and more! What is your favorite Hughes poem?
Nikky Finney, the 61st National Book of Poetry Award Winner "Honoree," Taught me how to "Honor" when she "Honored" Toni
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6z9QMFKNw I want to join the chorus of the many in honoring Nikky Finney for being awarded the National Book Award for Poetry. Her written words and the recounting of her words in her own voice are amazing. And, I use the term amazing not in the typical ways in which we use it to […]
Spoken Word Poetry: Hold Onto that History.
Visceral, in your face, in your ears, in your snapping fingers, and tapping feet, spoken word poetry sprang loosely from the expressive energies of the blues, the Harlem Renaissance, and hip-hop music which had each permeated black communities throughout America over the course of the century. Mimicking the 1960s beat poets of coffee houses and […]
Black Prodigy’s Admission to UConn Revoked Amid Claims of Radical Poetry
Jorge Rivas, Colorlines | July 18, 2011 Thirteen-year-old Autum Ashante is a child prodigy. She could read at age 2, and by 3 she was writing and performing poetry. Less than ten years later, at the age of 12, the Bronx native graduated high school and is now widely known as a poet, United Nations […]
Prop 8, Original Poetry, and Coming Out
Jimmy Santiago Baca, a leading contemporary Latino poet writing in the United States, reminds us that “Poetry’s mission is to subvert, to question, to challenge, provoke, to flail one’s vulnerability and voice into the marvelous whirlwind of poetry’s awe, flagging at the horns of the raging beast that is societies gluttonous comfort, ‘bringing social justice’…affirm […]
The Ramifications of Slam Poetry Part 3: A Commercialized Art
Anytime an underground art becomes commercialized it is simultaneously at risk of becoming compromised. We saw this happen in the ballroom scene, rap music and hip hop culture. The same issue surfaced in the poetry scene when Russell Sims began to take spoken word and turn it into a commercialized art. Nothing is wrong with […]
The Ramifications of Slam Poetry Part 2: Brave New Voices
I would like to believe that there is a moment in everyone’s life that becomes a point of definition. This if nothing else has been the reality of my experience. My moment of definition was March 2006 when I was a participant in the finals of the Cleveland city wide poetry slam. Two weeks prior […]