Those are the poems that are taught in school and referred to as classics. Specifically we’re looking at dead white men. Where we run into trouble is often we are looking through such a tight pinhole of what poems can be. How do you think we can make poetry accessible and cool, especially for a young audience? Poetry sometimes gets a bad rap-people think it’s all stuffy. Never underestimate the power of art as the language of the people. If you analyze Martin Luther King’s “ I Have a Dream” speech, it’s a great document of rhetoric that’s also a great document of poetry, of imagery, of song. That’s poetry being marshaled to speak of racial justice. If we look to the Black Lives Matter protests, you see banners that say, They buried us but they didn’t know we were seeds. Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements for change. How do you think art fits into these larger social movements? Do you think about these things as you write?Ībsolutely. Your generation was out front at the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, and you were using your voices long before that to demand change. You are part of a rising generation that isn’t afraid to call out racism and injustice when you see it. There was a lot of the night-before performing in the mirror. Most of my preparation was stepping into the emotionality of the poem, getting my body and my psyche ready for that moment. But everything was moving so quickly, I actually didn’t get to really sit down with the text until the night before. When I first wrote the poem, I was thinking that in the week leading up to the Inauguration I would be rehearsing every day. But you being the amazing person you are, you always remember. How did you prepare yourself for a moment like that?Įvery time we meet, I secretly hope you forget me because then I get a clean slate. I have to say I felt proud too you’ve always had so much poise and grace, but seeing you address the whole country like that, I couldn’t help thinking to myself: Well, this girl has grown all the way up. It was your presence onstage, the confidence you exuded as a young Black woman helping to turn the page to a more hopeful chapter in American leadership. The power of your words blew me away-but it was more than that. Like the rest of the country, I was profoundly moved as I watched you read your poem “The Hill We Climb” at last month’s Inauguration.
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