Bringing the works of African American poets together

One of the many reasons that C. Liegh McInnis's article, "Thoughts after Reading Twenty-Five Collections of Black Poetry in Twenty-Five Days," caught my attention is related to one of my own articles, "Catching Holy Ghosts: The Diverse Manifestations of Black Persona Poetry" which I wrote and published years ago in African American Review. 

I was so excited to have pinpointed this deep, recurring interest among black poets. So many of them were taking up persona poems, and I felt good about the fact that I was getting a chance to mention so many contemporary poets in a single article. 

McInnis's article took me back to that excitement about bringing the work of a variety of African American poets together in one space, even if it was an article. It's common for folks to host readings with multiple poets. But it's not everyday that we assemble poems by several poets for the purposes of critical conversations. 

Related:

• Returning to C. Liegh McInnis's critical work on poetry 

• C. Liegh McInnis on obscure/vague language, references in poetry 

• C. Liegh McInnis on imagery in black poetry

• C. Liegh McInnis's concentrated cultural catalog on black poetry