There seems no appropriate way to begin this article, no way to neatly encapsulate our heartbreak over Eric Garner, Mike Brown, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Kimani Gray, Trayvon Martin, and the seemingly endless list of black Americans killed by police officers. As anyone reading this is probably aware, there are a number of simultaneous and related debates currently happening on a national stage, ranging from the frustratingly obvious to legally pedantic. Unfortunately, addressing every debate is beyond the scope of this article, just as summarizing the sorrow of those affected seems disingenuous. We’re asking a simple question, taken from an even simpler observation, in the hopes that it will resonate with those who are conflicted by these events. Black people in America are suffering, and have been suffering in one form or another throughout the history of America. Why is it that in a country whose political process is based in a dynamic of assembly and representation, such a massive and integral group of people can cry out without proportional representation or agency?
Below we have listed writers, or groups of writers, who are writing from a place steeped in race. We are doing this to some degree because we are ourselves writers, and we look to other writers to make sense of tragedy. However, we are also doing this to show that this outcry is not new, some of these poets are reading poems published over 70 years ago. The pain being experienced now is not an aberration, this is not the first time black Americans have been victimized, nor is it the first time they have fought against their oppression. We must approach these horrors with the understanding that this is not a slip in the system, that the proper response isn’t to simply put our nation “back on track”. We must fundamentally change what America is, and has been, just as every person who fought for change in America’s history has. As Edward Murrow famously said, “Remember, we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”
#BlackPoetsSpeakOut
A group of Cave Canem poets began uploading homemade videos of themselves reading poems addressing race in America, and the movement has spread to include hundreds of videos from black poets across America. Some read their own work, while others read works from history, all without any curation, aside from the hashtag #BlackPoetsSpeakOut. We have provided a link to a list of around 200 videos here.
“from The Interrogation” by Jericho Brown
Button Poetry
It should be said that Button Poetry is not itself a political organization, and it does not solely publish poetry about race. However, it is one of the best repositories of spoken word poetry freely available, and hosts videos of many important race-related poems, including Danez Smith’s popular “Not An Elegy For Mike Brown” (below). A link to the channel can be found here.
“Not An Elegy for Mike Brown” by Danez Smith
“Open Letter to the Mother of Michael Dunn” Bianca Phipps
