Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Laurie Ann GuerreroYou must start small as our mothers were small,
our fathers, too, small.
In a pillowcase whip-stitched with roses
or in an old coffee can, collect your abuelos’
teeth; assure them you will not bury them
near the bones of the dog that froze
By Pat Parker (d.)I wish I could be
the lover you want
come joyful
bear brightness
By Amanda JohnstonThe Outdoor Afros guide promises our eyes will adjust.
Moonlight is enough to see the beauty in the dark.
Without entering the woods, I see our blackness
pull the grassy hem over our bodies.
By Ariana Brownyou said you held a gun first / then a girl / & both begged for mercy / & you are afraid / of your own
body / of the hands that are their own haunting / the coal / bursting through / your glowing skin / black
By Fady JoudahDoes consciousness exist only when
you name it? Was the double helix a
stranger, the nucleus the first brain?
I feel therefore I am. This is more
By Fady JoudahFady Joudah reads "Tenor" at the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Naomi Shihab NyeNaomi Shahib Nye performs the poems "My Father, on dialysis" and "Shoulders" at the 2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By David Tomas MartinezIt's not water to wine to swallow harm,
though many of us have,
and changing the name
By Lisa L. MooreWord got out about the bad bill.
College students packed up their bikinis,
went back to Austin to tell those men why
By Naomi Shihab NyeSuch a swift lump rises in the throat when
a uniformed woman spits Throw it away!
and you tremble to comply wondering why