To John Lewis, Whose Strength and Sweetness Never Faltered
Date of release: August 27, 2020 // Dear John Robert Lewis,There was a colossal sweetness about you that some mistook for weakness. A sweetness, that seemed to power your actions and your life. Seems to me it was a particular kind of sweetness that was perhaps, given to you, taught to you, perhaps, by your large and loving family, and also taught again, perhaps, by all the tambourine-ing and lightning bolt words you soon discovered in those second and third hand books in that small segregated school house, in Pike County, Alabama. . . keep reading on LitHub
The New Pornography
Date of release: July 21, 2020 // The Governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, has announced the funneling of 32 million of the 48 million received from the CARES Act to go to pay for tuition at private schools in South Carolina. He is in effect erecting a new kind of confederate statue in South Carolina. Lo and Behold it's Betsy DeVos riding contrapposto pose on a great stallion through the halls of public education. In one hand is a gasoline can. In the other hand is a match with the White House on the front. . . keep reading.
Planet Love Child
Date of release: April 22, 2020 // It has been 10 years, 3 months, and 19 days since the launch of my 4th poetry book, Head Off & Split. For the first three books the process was pretty simple. After securing publication each book arrived by USPS at my front door. The box that the books were tucked away in was always heavy and a little beat up when I found it. . . keep reading.
Become Flood
Date of release: May 29, 2019 // I’m here to ask you to follow the lead of the women restaurant owners who were the first to ask them to leave, who refused to serve them, bread or butter, who came out of the back rooms, where the chopping & kneading was being done, and asked them to take their shiny mean spirits . . .keep reading.
Bum
Date of release: September 25, 2017 // First: Use concise compressed language: Bum (North American) Noun . . .keep reading.
We Are Who We Say We Are
Date of release: August 19, 2017 // There are 113 Confederate monuments in the state of South Carolina honoring white soldiers who seceded from the Union in 1860 and fought to the death for the right to keep Black people " locked and loaded" in slavery during the Civil War. . .keep reading.
A Louder Call for Truth & Justice
Date of release: May 10, 2017 // Did you hear the news about the brand new constellation up in the Florida sky? Some Bethune-Cookman graduating seniors showed us they are ready to enter the world and be counted above the clamor of the going along to get along. They reminded us how to resist the polite, and the neatly packaged " learn from those you disagree with. . . keep reading.
Where Honey & Vinegar Both Have a Home
Date of release: March 23, 2017 // Ernest A. Finney, Jr., Smithfield, Virginia boy, my papa, is 86 today. In this first photo he is 35 and I am 9. We are in the middle of the indefatigable summer of 1967. To the camera, he is holding up a Black Power fist. . . keep reading.
The Shiny Quarter
Date of release: January 5, 2017 // This afternoon a decision was made by my dear alma mater, Talladega College, to send its glorious marching band to the inauguration of a man who believes in grabbing women "by their pussy;" a man who laughs openly, imitating the man with motor skills difficulty; a man who believes women are toys to push around and bully; a man whose hate for immigrants and people who don't live in penthouse suites will now occupy the highest office in the land. . .keep reading.
A Poet Report from the Arena
Date of release: December 6, 2016 // At a news conference, during the trial, the brother of Walter Scott said that when his brother was a boy he "loved to run." One is wearing khaki and camouflage, the other a grey suit with Miami sunset tie. They have coffee in front of them and no food. They are not trying to whisper. They want me to hear them. So out with it. . keep reading.
I, too, sing
Date of release: November 15, 2016 // These are the words of our great American poet Langston Hughes. The poem “I, Too” is also known as “I, Too, Sing America,” and it was initially titled “Epilogue” when it appeared in The Weary Blues in 1926. . .keep reading.
Iron & Lavendar
Date of release: October 17, 2016 // Back in the early days when people first discovered I loved poetry they would often ask me to compose poems for special occasions. Easter poems, Holiday poems, poems for Mrs. Scott's 90th birthday. I was honored to do this when I was 13 or 14. The request made me feel like I was doing my part for my community. Just like the carpenter or the farmer or the midwife. The tradition of being asked to make a new poem has followed me in my life. I don't do it as often as I used to. But what those early years taught me was how my mind works when thinking about how to build a poem. . .keep reading.
"Love is Progress, Hate is Expensive"
Date of release: September 21, 2016 // These are the words of Esau Jenkins painted on the backside of his yellow-green 1960’s Volkswagen van. It was a van-bus that he drove around his home of Johns Island, South Carolina. He drove his van-word-bus back and forth from Johns Island to Charleston, S.C., and to other towns and cities for many years at the turn of the 20th century. Anybody coming up behind him in his rearview could read what he believed. Esau Jenkins must have been whispering out to the world. . .keep reading.
Chant Down Babylon 2
Date of release: June 5, 2016 // You and your little ivory-tipped six-shooter words pointed at our dream-filled, churning up the hill, want-to-be-better hearts, you on your glittering presidential runway with your . . .keep reading.
I Feel Good
Date of release: April 24, 2016 // Whores raised him with intellect and Savoire Faire, always teaching, pack your fragrant pants proper like a mattress, stock news . . .keep reading.
The Justice Man
Date of release: March 23, 2016 // It was 1967, and time to set out on my own. I was 10 and my mind made up, determined to do what no black girl, I ever knew, had ever done, run away from home, the day before, Beauty Shop Day. . .keep reading.
"We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest"
Date of release: January 25, 2016 // I've been invited to deliver the keynote address to the South Carolina Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Columbia this week. There was a part of me that wanted to turn the invitation down. I am not a poet who wants or needs to be in every conversation. . .keep reading.
The Sweet, Daring Risk That Poetry Always Brings
Date of release: August 12, 2015 // Last June, I received a call from my publisher that the University of Maryland had chosen my fourth book, Head Off & Split, as the 2015 - 2016 First Year Book. . keep reading.
Bully
Date of release: August 12, 2015 // He doesn't want to be president and he certainly never intended to be ahead in the polls. This is a mistake that is now keeping him up at night. He's worried. He doesn't quite know what to do about the surprise of being in the lead this long. . .keep reading.
The Juneteenth Father’s Day Solstice Pride Love Moon Weekend of 2015
Date of release: June 23, 2015 // Two days ago, on the weekend of June 19– 21, the weekend that our 150 year old cakewalk away from slavery, Juneteenth, was celebrated, on the very weekend we honored our persistent determined fathers, on the very weekend the first and longest summer day of 2015 arrive. . .keep reading.
The Mule & The Llama
Date of release: March 19, 2015 // Last night I watched the final episode of EMPIRE. Having never seen the popular TV show before I thought I would watch and see what all the fuss was about. A poet should stay on top of this life as much as she can. . .keep reading.
145
Date of release: January 23, 2015 // My father’s memory is changing—changing in that way that so often happens to one who has lived for 84 years. This struggle he is having with his memory is one of the reasons I moved back to South Carolina. . .keep reading.
Choking on a Waterfall of Watermelon Seeds
Date of release: November 21, 2014 // On Wednesday night Jacqueline Woodson won the 2014 National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature. After she left the stage the host of the National Book Awards, Daniel Handler, told the crowd that she, a Black woman, "was allergic to watermelon" and then implored the crowd at the National Book Awards to "let that settle in your mind." I found myself staring at my laptop and choking on a waterfall of watermelon seeds. . .keep reading.
Jane Gentry Vance
Date of release: October 5, 2014 // When Jane walked in the room two things happened, her headlight eyes and smile stopped you in your tracks and her dressed-to-the-9’s gorgeous sense of style made you realize you were is the presence of a radiant woman. . .keep reading.
Mona Turns 20!!!
Date of release: September 29, 2014 // There has been a cat walking around in my life for as long as I can remember. I can say aloud every one of their names and recall each of their different personalities. My memories of each of them are filled with images and film of me moving along in life from girl to woman. . .keep reading.
Voice & Sound: Ruthie Foster
Date of release: August 17, 2014 // I just spent two days listening to Ruthie Foster, singer-songwriter. Ruthie Foster, singer-songwriter of Gause, Texas. I kept hitting the replay button over and over. I would watch and listen. . .keep reading.
Carolyn Finney
Date of release: July 18, 2014 // Before I moved away from Lexington, Kentucky, my dear friend, Kate Black, wise woman of the kitchen, gardener extraordinaire, and sincerest of human souls, had the lovely habit of leaving various and amazing magazine or newspaper articles in my mailbox or folded into the screen of my front door. . .keep reading.
Departure of the Mothers
Date of release: June 13, 2014 // It's as if they planned their great departures. It's as if one called the other one and said, "You go first and then I'll follow." . . .keep reading.
Sam I Am
Date of release: February 12, 2014 // 24 years and 255 pounds, 6 feet 4 with heart-shaped triceps, he is the Jackie Robinson of our time, elegant, determined to sack, tackling . . .keep reading.
The Who of Who I Am
Date of release: January 25, 2014 // There are now officially two Poet Houses; the original Poet’s House of Kentucky and the new Poet’s House of South Carolina. I write to you from the freezing fahrenheit sub-tropics of South Carolina. . .keep reading.
He Never Had It Made
Date of release: October 16, 2013 // Well, I've been back in South Carolina two weeks now. I'm still covered in boxes and none of my things from Kentucky seem to fit the new house but Mom fixed. . .keep reading.
A Call to the Heart
Date of release: August 29, 2013 // It's not every day that a poet lives to see her 2nd and 3rd literary children pulled off the bookshelf, after 18 and 15 years respectively . . .keep reading.
A Daughter Goes Home
Date of release: January 7, 2013 // After twenty years of living in Lexington and teaching at the University of Kentucky, I have accepted a teaching position at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. . .keep reading.
January 1, 2013
Date of release: January 1, 2013 // 2012 was all about migration. Most of the year was spent (literally) in the air winging my words to so many poetry-loving audiences. I travelled to more places last year than I had in the last five years combined. . .keep reading.