Call & Response
House in the World
I’m looking for a house
In the world
Where the white shadows
Will not fall.
There is no such house,
Dark brothers,
No such house
At all.
—Langston Hughes
These times are calling for all of us, particularly those of us privileged with a platform, no matter how small, to show and speak up for black lives. Here, we are responding by standing with our black and brown friends, families, colleagues, and everyone who has suffered from the abhorrent racism that is sadly so prevalent throughout the country.
In our workshop “The Lively Changing Face: Identity, Truths & Lies in Times of Crisis,” created months earlier but begun just days after the murder of George Floyd, teaching artist Elena Karina Byrne reflected on the “terrible synchronicity” of choosing to study Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin in her first lesson. In Hayes's sonnets, the “assassin” = any person fueled by hate, whose purpose is to kill the speaker and others “like” him. One student reflected: Sadly, there are too many points in time where this synchronicity could occur. In fact, there are probably fewer to no months in the year when it could not.
As we simultaneously mourn the unfathomable number of lives lost to Covid-19, we are compiling an e-chapbook/anthology that wrestles with the issues and intersections of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Covid-19 crisis, which has disproportionately affected people of color. Think breath, isolation, anger, uprising, fear, grief, mortality, and/or unexpected beauty and joy. Please see our call for submissions and send us your most necessary work.
We have also added a new self-paced workshop, The Contemporary Ode, designed by teaching artist Stacey Balkun, which showcases nearly exclusively the powerful work of a plethora of contemporary black poets, including Angel Nafis, Clint Smith, Kiki Petrosino, Marcus Wicker, Lauren K. Alleyne, Lucille Clifton, and Kevin Young.
Long overdue, this moment is calling each and every one of us to raise our awareness and our voices by any and all means at our disposal. Today, on our national birthday, it is painfully clear that there is so much more work to be done before liberty and justice can be enjoyed by all. Between the barbecues and fireworks, the pomp and pageantry, please pause and contemplate how you can respond to the call.
Black Lives Matter | Black Poetry Matters
We look forward to seeing you and recommend checking out some of the following titles from our collection:
Rebound, Kwame Alexander
Jelly Roll, Kevin Young
Alabanza, Martin Espada
Sonata Mulattica, Rita Dove
Chasing Utopia, Nikki Giovanni
Tarnish & Masquerade, Roger Bonair-Agard
Voyage of the Sable Venus, Robin Coste Lewis
Madness and a Bit of Hope, Safiya Henderson-Holmes
Femme Du Monde, Patricia Spears Jones
Against Which, Ross Gay
She Has a Name, Kamilah Aisha Moon
The New Testament, Jericho Brown
Crossover, Kwame Alexander
The Gathering of My Name, Cornelius Eady
History Is Your Own Heartbeat, Michael S. Harper
Hip Logic, Terrance Hayes
Taproot, Indigo Moor
The Essential Etheridge Knight
Blessing the Boat, Lucille Clifton
Funk Lore, Amiri Baraka
The Body’s Question, Tracy K. Smith
Arrival, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Neon Vernacular, Yusef Komunyakaa
Undersong, Audre Lorde
Citizen, Claudia Rankine
Horses Make a Landscape Look Beautiful, Alice Walker
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown
Note: Our library is available for everyone to enjoy, but if you would like to borrow books, please become a member for as little as $20 per year.