Descripción general
In an era when the headlines highlight our national fractures, can poetry help us navigate the complexities of both national politics and local struggles? Americans have always embraced diverse and conflicting political views — but in our particularly divisive time, poets are stepping into the role of advocate, using their work to foster understanding and call for a more cohesive future.
Join us for a virtual conversation with four poets whose work grapples with contemporary politics: Cortney Lamar Charleston, whose verses examine how national political decisions ripple through and specifically impact Black communities; Mayda del Valle, the Poet Laureate of Chicago, who brings the voice of the South Side to the highest levels of government, having performed at the Obama White House; Danez Smith of Minneapolis, who uses poetry as a tool to support and uplift that city’s immigrant populations; and Camonghne Felix, who provides a direct link between the literary and the legislative, drawing from her personal experience working with Senator Elizabeth Warren.
