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Friday, November 28, 2014

A roundup of #BlackPoetsSpeakOut Selections

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-Sharpe, & Maya Washington on a Cave Canem Facebook group. Together, they developed a posting strategy.

[Related: A Notebook on #BlackPoetsSpeakOut]

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.

• "Can't Run Any Longer" by Neville Phoenix Adams
• "That Thing" by Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman 
• "Message to Oppression" by Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman 
• "March (for Black Lives)" by Dasan Ahanu
• "Ice Storm" by Robert Hayden read by Derrick Austin
• "Dialectic" by Quenton Baker
• "Night" (for Henry Dumas) by Aracelis Girmay read by Sasha Banks
• "jasper texas 1998 (For j. byrd)" by Lucille Clifton read by Youlanda D. Barber
A poem by Aziza Barnes
• "Catch" by Samiya Bashir
• "Medieval" by Sean Battle
• "Black Men as Secret Shoppers" by Shelly Bell
• "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
• "blue line" by Yaya Bey
• "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
• "For Each Of You" by Audre Lorde read by Cheryl Clarke
• "St. Inside and Out" by Aaron Coleman
• “Just ice” by Louis Reyes Rivera read by Ricardo Nazario y Colón
• "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
Untitled by Bryant Cross
• "It's Raining Ferguson" by Lorraine Currelley
• "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
• "jasper texas 1998" by Lucille Clifton read by Kelly Norman Ellis
• "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
• "Epistle for the Dead and Dying" (after "The Haunted Oak" by Paul Laurence Dunbar) by Eve L. Ewing
• "Black Friday" by Latorial Faison
• "aiyana" by Raina Fields
• "from here i saw what happened and i cried" by t'ai freedom ford 
• "The Levees Break Blues" by Sherese Francis
• "Because It's Time" by Vievee Francis
• "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
• "Incident" by Amiri Baraka read by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
• "For My People" by Margaret Walker read by Danielle Hall
• "Exorcism of Amerikkkan Pharaoh(s)" by Louise Hammonds
• "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
• "Island Within Island" by Henry Dumas read by Nicole Higgins
• "A Photograph Taken in Duluth" by Sean Hill
• "Dreams" by Langston Hughes read by Darrel Alejandro Holnes
• "Boy Meets Gun" by Candice Iloh
• "Ghazal for Our Sons" by JP Howard and "The Story Trayvon" by Nicholas
• "Passing Pamohna" by Ashaki M. Jackson
• "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
• "bitter crop" by Kelli Stevens Kane
Untitled by Douglas Kearney
• "Striptease" by Alan King
• "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
• "The New Black" by Len Lawson
• "The Photo: A Lynching" by Lucille Clifton read by Chantay Legacy Leonard
• "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 Nate Marshall
• "My Woman: Without America" by Victoria Massie 
• "If My Late Grandmother Was Gertrude Stein" by Airea Dee Matthews
• "Darkie" by Kristen McCallum 
• "Gratitude" by Cornelius Eady read by Syreeta McFadden
• "Questions on the Police Officer's Exam"  by Tony Medina
On Anger” by Elizabeth Mitchell
• "Black Boy Blank" by Jonah Mixon-Webster
• "Eulogy (In Case Of...)" by Thea Monyee
• "Paranoid” by Jonathan Moody 
• "Poem For Amadou Diallo" Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read by Kamilah Aisha Moon
• "The Script Given to Grieving Mother whose child has been murdered" by B. Sharise Moore
• "Black Erasure" by Chace Morris 
• "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
• "Make Noise Without a Sound" by Chioma Oruh 
• "Things You Missed" by Deonte Osayande
• "A Litany for Survival" by Audre Lorde read by Lauren G. Parker
• "The History of Black People" by Morgan Parker
• "the boy with the worried eyes" by Sandra Proto
• "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay read by Breuana Roach
• "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)
• "Dating Advice for my Daughter (After Tragedy in Ferguson)" 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
• "For Saundra" by Nikki Giovanni read by Amanda Seales
• "Candelabra with Heads" by Nicole Sealey
• “On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses” by Toi Dericotte read by Charif Shanahan
• "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
• "Stand Your Privilege" by Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe & Obsidian Blues Crew
• "Playground Elegy" by Clint Smith
• "who has time for joy?" by Danez Smith
• "For Mrs. Hawkins" by Tupac Shakur read by Shia Shabazz Smith
• “Boy Breaking Glass" by Gwendolyn Brooks read by L'Oréal Snell 
• "White-Washed Ignorance" by Brittany Spaulding
• "White-Washed Ignorance, Pt. 2" 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
• "When the Shotgun Question the Black Boy" by Sonya Renee Taylor
• "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
• "Undertaker" by Patricia Smith read by Lauren Whitehead
• "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
• "Maybe None Of Us Are Actually From Anywhere" by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib 
• 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
• "(Ar)rest Assured" by Scott Woods

Related:
A notebook on Mike Brown and Ferguson
• A Notebook on #BlackPoetsSpeakOut 

5 comments:

  1. Hi and thank you for doing this. I thought I'd post the link to a youtube playlist I'm updating in case it helps you update your archive. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBF8IZ6CUsu41NfqNckn0R3KojMJSu9EE

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  2. http://vimeo.com/113159763
    Bianca Spriggs reads Lucille Clifton's "won't you celebrate with me"

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  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrBWychjZFI&feature=share

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  4. Thank you for this.

    In solidarity,
    Amanda Johnston

    ReplyDelete