11/30/2014
howard rambsy ii:
a roundup of
#blackpoetsspeakout
selections
Portrait of Michael Brown by artist Valerie Lewis.
In solidarity with the movements to address racial injustices related to police brutality, including the killing of Michael Brown, poets have been reading poems online under the hashtag #BlackPoetsSpeakOut.[Related: A few notes on #BlackPoetsSpeakOut]The project came about from a brainstorming session between Amanda Johnston, Mahogany “Mo” Browne, Jonterri Gadson, Jericho Brown, Sherina Rodriguez, & Maya Washington on a Cave Canem Facebook group. Together, they developed a posting strategy.The readings open with the statement: “I am a Black poet who will not remain silent while this nation murders Black people. I have a right to be angry.”
What follows is a list of some of the pieces.
• “That Thing” by Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman
• “March (for Black Lives)” by Dasan Ahanu
• “Ice Storm” by Robert Hayden read by Derrick Austin
• “Jasper Texas 1998 (For j. byrd)” by Youlanda D. Barber
• A poem by Aziza Barnes
• “Catch” by Samiya Bashir
• “Medieval” by Sean Battle
• “Theodicy” (for Renisha McBride) by Joshua Bennett
• “Give Me The Red On the Black of the Bullet (For Claude Reece Jr.)” by Jayne Cortez read by Tara Betts
• “Kef 12” and “America” by Henry Dumas read by Destiny Birdsong
• “Off-Key II” by Kei Miller read by Malika Booker
• “Thanks” (After Yusef Komunyakaa and verdict and verdict after verdict) by Derrick Weston Brown
• From “The Interrogation” by Jericho Brown
• “Poem about Police Violence” by June Jordan read by Mahogany L. Browne
• “St. Inside and Out” by Aaron Coleman
• “The Dictators” by Pablo Neruda read by Nandi Comer
• “Reply” by Lucille Clifton read by Tameka Cage Conley
• “Surrogacy” by Rasheed Copeland
• “No One Can Stop the Rain” by Deidre CreativeSoul
• “Kerosene” by Tim Seibles read by Geffrey Davis
• “The Black I Was Wearing” by Sean DesVignes
• “Untitled” by Ynanna Djehuty
• “The Secret Society of Black Mothers” By Natasha Ria El-Scari
• “We Interrupt this Prayer to Murder Tamir Rice” by William Evans
• “Speech to the Young / Speech to the Progress-Toward” by Gwendolyn Brooks read by Eve L. Ewing
• “aiyana” by Raina Fields
• “from here i saw what happened and i cried” by t’ai freedom ford
• “Noon Knives” by Aime Cesaire read by Krista Franklin
• “Power” by Audre Lorde read by Jonterri Gadson
• “BLK Medley” by Rob ‘Robalu’ Gibsun
• “God’s Work” by Thomas Gilbert
• “Untitled-12” by Thomas Gilbert
• “a george holliday rodney king video (director’s cut)” by Brian Gilmore
• “Every 28 Hours” by Tameka Glenn
• “Benediction” by Bob Kaufman read by Yalonda JD Green
• “Freedom Bondage” by Monica Hand
• “Flare” by Nikky Finney read by Ashley Harris
• “The Sermon on the Warpland” by Gwendolyn Brooks read by Reginald Harris
• “The Arrivants” by Kamau Brathwaite read by Yona Harvey
• “Alligators” by Ashlee Haze
• “A Poem to Get Rid of Fear” by Joy Harjo read by M. Ayodele Heath
• “A Photograph Taken in Duluth” by Sean Hill
• “Dreams” by Langston Hughes rad by Darrel Alejandro Holnes
• “Boy Meets Gun” by Candice Iloh
• “Ghazal for Our Sons” by JP Howard and “The Story Trayvon” by Nicholas
• “Night,, Death, Mississippi” by Robert Hayden read by Monifa Lemons Jackson
• “Blue/Grass” by Khary Jackson
• “In Defense of Violent Protest” by Brionne Janae
• “improper(ty) behavior” by Evie Shockley read by Amanda Johnston
• “4/30/92” by Lucille Clifton read by Bettina Judd
• Untitled by Douglas Kearney
• “bitter crop” by Kelli Stevens Kane
• “Power” by Audre Lorde read by Ruth Ellen Kocher
• “BlackLivesMatter” by Raina Leon
• “Elliptical” by Harryette Mullen read by Ana-Maurine Lara
• “Vanitas with Negro Boy” by Rickey Laurentiis
• “Prometheus Explains Genocide” by Deonte Osayande read by Essence London
• “Listen Children” by Lucille Clifton read by Sheree Mack
• “Endangered Species” by Cynthia Manick
• “The Implication of Violence” by Kita Marshall
• “Alzheimer’s” by Nata Marshall
• “My Woman: Without America” by Victoria Massie
• “If My Late Grandmother Was Gertrude Stein” by Airea Dee Matthews
• “Black Boy Blank” by Jonah Mixon-Webster
• “Poem For Amadou Diallo” Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read by Kamilah Aisha Moon
• “Enter the Dragon” by John Murillo
• “Within Two Weeks, The African American Poet Ross Gay is mistaken..” by Ross Gay read by Angel Nafis
• From Marilyn Nelson’s A Wreath for Emmett Till read by Rachel Nelson
• “A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde read by Lauren G. Parker
• “The History of Black People” by Morgan Parker
• “The Mayor of Money” (for Emmett Till) by Roger Reeves
• “Trained (Black Boy Lost)” by DJ Rodgers
• “We Are Not Responsible” by Harryette Mullen read by Khadijah Queen
• “I am Tired Mourning Our Dead” by N. I. Nicholson
• “While You’re Getting Arrested Outside a Jimmy Buffet Concert” by Angelique Palmer
• “We” by Nikki Giovanni read by Douglas Powell (Roscoe Burnems)
• “Trayvon” by Treasure Shields Redmond
• “|p|l|e|a|s|” by Justin Phillip Reed
• “If Mamie Till was the Mother of God” by Joseph Ross read by Katy Richey
• “if the tables were turned” by Casey Rocheteau
• “Dialect of Hurricanes” by Franketienne read by Magali RoyFequiere
• “Workshop on Racism” by Toi Derricotte read by Metta Sama
• “Candelabra with Heads” by Nicole Sealey
• “Skin” by Kwame Dawes read by Kevin Simmonds
• “RIOT” (A Poem in Three Parts) by Gwendolyn Brooks read by Chris Slaughter
• “Directions to Ginen” by Joy KMT and “Homeland” by Jericho Brown read by Shakeema Smalls
• “who has time for joy?” by Danez Smith
• “Boy Breaking Glass” by Gwendolyn Brooks read by L’Oréal Snell
• “White-Washed Ignorance” by Brittany Spaulding
• “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton read by Bianca Spriggs
• “Them Ghosts” by Christina Springer
• “Red Summer” by Quentin Talley
• “Imagine the Angels of Bread” by Martin Espada read by Samantha Thornhill
• “On the Murder of Two Human Being Black Men” by June Jordan read by Qiana Towns
• “America, November 2014” by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
• “Tell Me” by Maya Washington
• “A Lesson in This Queer African American Woman’s History” by Yazmin Monet Watkins
• “Mr. Snake, I Don’t Like You” by Angela Jackson read by Sa Whitley
• “Pulled Over in Short Hills, NJ” by Ross Gay read by Marcus Wicker
• “Right On: White America” by Sonia Sanchez read by Candace Wiley
• “When the Officer Caught Me” by Nate Marshall read by Tonya Wiley
• From Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin read by Phillip B. Williams
• “Cincinnati Windy Greys” by Keith S. Wilson
• “Drive-by” by L. Lamar Wilson
• “It’s All in Your Head” by Marilyn Nelson read by L. Lamar Wilson