Her eyes. I have read a couple actually have a thing about her for some reason its not just fdr. That she standing next to him doing things but not her. Thats what im reading when a Sitdown Tire but i will also get through this 1200 page gotham. Host its been an absolute pleasure to speak with you so for more information on nine nasty words please support your local bookseller or final program of the season will be held on and Friday April 14 and we will be in conversation thanks a lot for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday american History Tv documents americas stories and on Sundays Booktv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 comes from these television companies and more including Spark Life. The greatest count on earth is a place you call home. At spark like right now we are all facing our greatest challenge. Thats why Spark Life is working round the clock to keep you connected. Were doing our part switchable easier to do yours. Sparklight along with details and company supports cspan2 as a public service. Middle and high school students your opinion matters. Let your voices be heard with Cspans Studentcam video competition. Be part of the national conversation by creating a documentary that answers the question how does the federal government in actual life . Your video affect you or your community. Cspans Studentcam Competition has 100,000 in total cash prizes and you have shot at the grand prize of 5000. Entries for the competition will begin to be received Wednesday September 8. For competition rules, tips and more information on how to get started visit our website at studentcam. Org. Sc im laurieanne sayles, councilmember from the city of gaithersburg and your host for this presentation. Before we get started a quick plug to support the authors purchasing their books from our wonderful bookseller partners, politics and prose. One of americas premier independent bookstores. We have links to purchase in the presentation description. Given all weve been through over the past year, its so important to support local jobs and the local economy. I also want to extend a big thank you to our 2021 featured sponsor, David And Michael blair, Family Foundation for their generous support. Okay. Lets get started. Today we have with us four acclaimed poets to discuss poetry in social justice throughout history. With work spanning the precivil war to the modern era, their latest books grapple with the long road ofh racism, patriarch, and other social issues. Raising king i Joseph Ross in the words of joseph himself urges readers to walk beside dr. Martin luther king, jr. From montgomery to memphis, pass police dogs, bobs and fire hoses. L and listen to his thoughts, hopes and fears. Joseph ross is an author of four books of poetry in his poems appear in many publications. Including the New York times magazine in the Los Angeles times and he has received multiple nominations and when that 2012 library little review, Poetry Prize for his poems. His many was the mother of god. By broad Potomacs Shore great poems from the early days of our nations capitol, by Kim Roberts and by both wellknown and overlooked poet. Working and living in the capitol in the citys 18 hundreds to 1930. Included are poems by celebrated writers such as Francis Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass as well as the work of lesserknown poet. Kim roberts is the author of the literary guide from washington dc. Walking in the footsteps of american writers from francis to others. In five books of poems. It and most recently, the scientific method. Political af, political af by Tara Campbell is a Hybrid Book of poetry. The collection focuses on topics such as race, corruption, gun violence, police brutality, confederate monuments, reproductive freedom and the sexual Harassment And Abuse of women. Tara campbell is a writer, teacher, a Fellow And Fiction editor. She received her msa from american university. She is the author of the novel and three other collections. Bicycle, midnight at the and cabinet, and all collection. Moderating the discussion between these three poetry discussions as an awardwinning literary Activist And Author of two memoirs in several poetry collections. He hosted Wp Fw Morning Radio Show on the margin with Ethel Miller and hosts and produces the scholars on tv which received at 2020 award in his latest book, if god invented baseball, it was awarded the 2019 literary award for poetry by the black caucus of the american library association. And he turned over to all of you, the only regret i have is that theyre not celebrating in person. And we look forward to doing that next time hearing gaithersburg. So for now welcome joseph, kim, Tara And Echo park. Thank you is very nice to be with you. So open to begin. So the attack on our company on january 6th. People make reference to this. Back to 1812, lets talk about some of the riots that happening then. Trinity into what we just happened this year. So mine starts with 18 hundreds when ec was founded and a lot of those early poets, i was surprised to see how many of them were making a political Statement And Commentary from government and the roll of government in our lives. So i started from the earliest poets working specifically providers who are bringing up issues that would resonate with us today, writers who are writing about War And Conflict about Race And Gender in economic entities and cultural differences and you would not be surprised to know that there were a number of poets who were actively engaging go with these political issues. And i would say that especially if you are looking at taking 12, and some of those earlier eras. Some of the most fascinating poems in the book to me were about how the country was wrangling with Race And Identity and specifically about slavery and abolition. In dc, you may or may not be aware is a center for the internal Slave Trade in the country. It was also a major center for the abolitionist movement. So i think of, there is a poetry also religious leader by the name of john martin. And if you would look at it and i am thinking of the specific poem of his from the Anthology Part of the freedom. It will read the whole thing. It is very long. But you get some of the sense that if i just read maybe one parts of it is just so powerful. The slave initiates is a grim sacrifice. The tones of the Priest Rise higher and higher but is god knowing conflict regards not is christ. The merchants bring his gift to the altar in a statement entered spring laws all in vain. The Demagogue Accent and doubt due to altered the unions astounded and again and again. And all in vain the heavens grow thicker with red to oppressions and soul and almighty truth is brighter and quicker terrific reason and vendors still roles near quick shattering the prisons to pieces and with eruptions of volcanic speech, the whirlwind and they are interfering increasing and tyrants alternately cursed and he speech. Tran 19. You kim. I want to begin with the historical sort of backdrop but now i want to ask a question and have tara began her response first. In this is for everyone. That is if you look back and you will have books in 2020. I feel that the country changed in 2020 the world changed in 2020. What about the black Lives Matter Movement on your life and your voice as a writer. And have you become to view this country and different way. Tell me tara. Tara yes. Actually the black Lives Matter Movement introduced some cognitive dissonance for me in terms of how he would discuss race. Because as a mixedrace person, my skin is light enough to sort of walk through the world as my white heart and adult face all of the obstacles that my black cousins and darker skinned siblings might face. And so that made me think about how to even talk about these things. That is an obstacle because people like myself arent necessarily part of that discussion and that we are both. Both of these have the supposed to be boring. And so i have problems with hanoi even start a sentence in the certain context. Because i myself am not the one at this particular kind of life necessarily. And so on circumstances, made me think about our Language And Help even the language is a barrier to coming together in this context two. Libby go a little bit deeper about how even begin to talk about these things. Ill have Joseph Respond to this. Tara this poem came about because of this very problem. I would have conversations i would not even know how to start my sentence. Because it didnt know i could be talking about we are they in this particular context. So i wrote my way out of it or through it. [laughter] so if you however you care to define that. The trouble with pronouns. But that is exactly why my lips and my Tongue Freeze. Another unarmed black man, be clear that the pronouns are messed because the mixed race and except trying to explain black and white, how we and they might bridge the gap. My lips, sometimes lack the confidence of these lives, speaking out of a lightskinned blueeyed face, lips from a girl who grew up in the Mainstream Middleclass Twoparent home in alaska. But in a multiethnic school. And Gilligans Island and get smart, really overalls and played with murray dolls. So how am i even black enough because i have no history with church or collards and i dont feel like singing. Actually have in my dreams and not deferred. They are affirmatively attainable. So have i actually earned the right to say we. How could my tongue insist upon leaving my teeth, its rolling off the right sounds like choice and by born in alaska because its only place a black man can get a job and trying to entangle scholars in the first racism in my class of commerce. I didnt never tonight. That one coursing through my veins and two uncomfortable thoughts of certain voices and mothers and spending too many years with rollers in my hair. Smiling at the coolness that im informed that we share. How can i not fear for my brother when his darker skin than mine in a world where they dont hesitate to say they. My lips, Tongue Freeze targeted and intimate rolls on. On except in blackandwhite. Thank you tara. So this is the question that he asked to tara is also admitted, how has the black Lives Movement influenced you. It is influence me a lot and its influenced my writing and especially i will say influenced many of the poems and raising king. One of the most important ways is influence me is through my students, my high School Teacher in washington dc. And watching some people walk through the world that does nothing to matter much. And they worry about the threats they face in their read the fears they have in their essays and the poems. And try to understand that and to learn from them. I am personally married to an africanamerican man and so the black Lives Matter Movement and concerns live in my house. And i live with those concerns all of the time. And in terms of the poems in raising king has recently as i have done for more readings i was only been out for six months now. But it is covered even some the language of black Lives Matter in the poems. A couple of them the Trade Step into the voice of Scott King or Doctor King and mindful of the potential dangers and pat. But almost unconsciously some of the phrasing of the black Lives Matters language shows up there. And i suppose that what i want really is those two things converge. But the truth the black Lives Matter shows up in these poems that Doctor King did not use that phrase. The movement was then obviously in its current formulation. There would be no daylight between his view of the world is complex and thoughtful critique of america and much of black Lives Matter, the movement is saying about today. I want to link this. When we think of king, we think of king, in the dream. Then we look at abuse. [inaudible]. So youre an expert on this. [inaudible]. In a book he told about how womens has waxed and waned targeted and whether now, comes to the black Lives Matter Movement. And we look at whitman to restore belief in america or should we look at other things. That is a fascinating question prayed that is part of the reason why is because he is someone who have traditionally invested so much of our own interpretation and. So certainly his record in supporting people of color is really horribly matched permit. Yet he is an icon for lgbtq plus people. And how much we read sort of him as a whole mixed picture as opposed to picking up different parts. And changes depending on where we are at. I think you have to understand in terms of the context of the time. Maybe i couldnt give as much context. And i think you also have to recognize that we are imperfect human beings and try and take what we can learn from the poetic and set aside those things that are not useful at that. So i think that women is a great example of that. And of course i use one of whitmans poems as the title poem. And by broad Potomacs Shore comes directly from him. It really i guess part of the way that i want to respond to this is a non Whitman Answer which is together anthology, you are doing so great consciously to argue. And yes of course, i am thrilled to have whitman had the book. I cannot think of having an Anthology Piece about whitman. So the reason why i wanted the put the book together was actually two increase the number of women writers and writers of colors and workingclass writers. Writers whose work is just as good as women or others are some of those bigger names that we recognize were not for various reasons being remembered and read and taught in school. Tara, you just heard kim respond to my question. Im going to approach you and have you explain your words. Ill cut you. [laughter] when he wrote, shut up. [inaudible]. And this is something that you build in your Fathers Money and a tattered stroll. You wrote that Run Joseph and kim and how are we supposed to respond to what you wrote. Right, that particular image was directed at a particular person who had been for the past four years. But is indicative of the promise that the american promise that has been packaged to appeal to the 1 percent. This is a myth that the rest of us as opposed to strive for and aspire to as kim said as we know better, but he did a better look at the models of the past. In sort of see them is complete. With all of their flaws and their strengths the ideas come to a deeper understanding. That quote is about moving the tales from your eyes but it does not mean that everything is eliminated. We can see it for what it is. And we can make our way and more informed manner. So part of this discussion about the monuments and street names changing and so forth. There has been a surprising amount of resistance. Because want to see that person has stood for, and i am talking about cases that even exceed the standard in terms of like what someone was reasonably been expected to believe that the time. About taking the historical context of their people who exceed those limits in terms of humanity. Any men in those cases, there is resistance to changing monuments and things for various reasons. So that statement is all about saying folks, look, this is an impossible dream. So lets recalculate and recalibrate this whole people to account. Joseph, in 2021, just a joke Martin Luther King was assassinated in memphis. What lessons can we learn from king. Goodness. I might immediately goes to make some of his thinking that the Dream Language in the march on Washington Speech in particular maybe most commonly known language. Its really sort of ignores what people sort of refer to as the whitewashing of king. Think about is critique of american culture and what he called the giant triplets militarism, poverty and racism. Most americans have no idea of the complicated helpful nuanced critique of american culture and really summarize the international order and he makes through those three doors of Militarism Consumerism our property. And racism. Theres a ton there to think about and read in the learn from. Anything provided that provides us and lends through which to see our own Country World and in some ways as tara was just describing, a little more honestly and accurately predict so that we can then make better cultural decisions about the statute we put on a Pedestal And Circle really nema building after. Ive always been struck by this night dont know if Doctor King wrote this or said the sort of explicitly but why do we think that we Cant Critique our country and love it in the same time. It is just maddening to me. It seems to me the Doctor King had it exactly right in fact loving your country requires a critique and an assistance to make things better in the flip of that is some kind of america live in early that thing which is just foolish. Just anti intellectual and just not thoughtful. We have to do better than that. Chair with us one of your poems from your book. Joseph sure and thank you. In one of the poems they use adjustment be a radius a poem that it takes time. There are three sections that were the responsive three excerpts of three of his books. This poem responds from something. Wrote which is the violence of 1963 in his second book. Doctor king wrote, you made it clear that we do not send anyone out to demonstrate could not convince themselves that he could accept and endure violence without retaliating rated as of this poem is called it takes time. It takes time to learn this. And it must be proven in the light of day that you will lift in the hand and fist. Adjourned. Some of the of Doctor Kings teaching in the heart of his christian faith is his deep deep belief in non violence. And i think that comes through in the book of poems and raising king is about nonviolence, he was much more about that but that was his method, he deeply believed that that was going to be a most effective method for change and for people. Lets talk about teaching. And Kim Tara and because of, you are all teachers at one time and i want to ask you kim and terms and also joseph, in teaching, other certain writers that you return to. And also him in speaking with your most recent book, other certain writers that lesser known that i want to teach and i want to introduce these names because theyre very important. So when into respond to that. Sure. There are certain writers that a return to again and again but increasingly they say or seem to be some of these writers who are less well known. For example, i have been teaching alice dunbar nelson, who always gets overshadowed by much more famous husband dunbar. In her work is i think especially hard poems, through her lifetime, they have dated so much somewhat better poetry, just continues to gather and forced me. I think a lot of the writers who better start during Amino Hall the harlem renaissance. And a lot of the writers who are best known to us now tend to be the male writers who moved to New York. And so many of the really top female writers of the movement were here in dc. So i think of like Georgette Johnson whose work i adore. So i feel like we need to widen the discussion more. And if there in time to time that would actually look read a poem by shoko. Should i do now okay. So one of these harlem press writers and she published an effort committed name cheap published wonderful. This poem salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag, they dragged him naked the muddy streets of people minded black folks in the charged assault upon an asian woman. In the United States of america. 1 mile they dragged him like a stack and a rope around his Neck And Ability left dangling by the patriotic cans. [inaudible]. Boy of 17. Into the republic for which it stands, and then they hanged his body to injury. Blew the window of a County Judge that human flesh they were stifled by the dish towels committed voice and women the Babes Product to see this bloodied spectacle of murder and 33. 3000 strong we were. One nation, indivisible, to make them to see and what matters 19 the stuff the bird was flesh and bones and hair and raking castling. With a liberty and justice, they pass this out for souvenirs among the men and boys. In the teeth no doubt on chains will hang about the favorite next of the wives and daughters and mothers sisters, babies, for all. Thank you camp. And i love that way that a lot of contemporary writers are now looking back at some of these fundamental texts doing the same sort of writing. So contemporary to me. Thank you for sharing. What writings you return to. This question for me is kind of a tangent because my primary form of fiction and in particular but i can speak to the secular in terms of broadening aperture of what we want or what the goal is. [inaudible]. It also has kind of this history is much more limited and the people who were actually writing it. It was very focused. So i can was talking about in terms of the us over shattering the folks who were actually doing the work as well. The people know that the voice also was writing speculative fiction as well. And that can be there as well. So the writings that i come back youre making this case final Taking End and making up by listening. One writer who i love is scott and he is startling at the literary and fantastical fiction. Unapologetically. And is created a whole town to play in terms of his fiction. I find myself coming back to histories again and again. What about you joseph. Ive been teaching american literature given a lot of freedom. Vanderbilt of course around Frederick Douglass who in some ways have discovered the last 20 years, i grew up no Teacher Or Professor ever said Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman until i was an undergraduate. We do a lot of Frederick Douglass reading the narrative in several of his speeches. I was happy to see kim spoke, one of his poems is there. He certainly not known for poems. And i love to introduce students to a poet named george horton. As countries amazing and is very 19th century for lines stances but its also very clear and crisp Lettuce Experience as an enslaved person in his biography is the most distinctive thing in american lit and i think the students will experience. He is to crime a Vegetable Wagon from the plantation to the newly founded university of North Carolina Chapel hill on sundays. And eventually me in writing poems for Students Girlfriend is to give the girlfriends. And he would talk with them and they realize he was a poet he became friends and Professors Wife helped him get in first couple of his books published. And he eventually asked his master if he could live in the chapel hill. Hogan is poems the slaveowner agrees laws he faced a certain amount of Money Today which he does. We lived until emancipation off the plantation like Offcampus Sort of thing. It is most amazing story. And fourthly, is afraid until emancipation was. Uni married and has two nephi wind up with three books of his poems. Always return to the poems of clifton especially at the and of the chronological survey of american. After retain this, after remember. [inaudible]. [laughter] this is very important. Right now were having this conversation with a history and black Lives Matter Movement. Major concern right now in our country is the tax the asian americans. I seen some people say okay, we need to know more about asian americans. In a teacher and also doing research, how much are you highlighting the works of asian americans. Because, in this way have have so much admiration for you. When i tried to create this but look at this historically black college, you were one of the first person during the first person. I always saw you working communities in where doing flick your killer like an archaeological work, and i was just wondering he become like a model to do this work with the asian american writers. Point out so much about the inequities of the publishing industry. I do not include single asian american poet in my anthologies because in those early years that i am looking at publishing was really not to asian americans in a way that would encourage people to try to share the work and more public way. So while included a couple of american indian writers, no asian americans in mind. That does not mean that asian americans were not actively writing. They just were not publishing in mainstream newspapers and journals. And i think that knowing that sort of history knowing the foundation behind you is crucial work. I think that you have an excellent point that we need to start looking at specific communities and do that research. Building on that. Certainly in my own teaching, and she a lot of more contemporary asian american writers whose work you love. And specifically with people are looking at a place to start from i would suggest Marilyn Chin in particular. But i think that doing that sort of digging also to get there. We dont just appear as contemporary writers most of the soldiers soldiers of those who come before us. I have to say that my approach is been more holistic. I have not focused specifically on asian american authors but one thing i like to do when teach my sciencefiction classes is focus on writers of color and women. If the goodly source of that i have found this on two books, Nuisance And Anthology and focuses on writers of color. And also the best american Science Fiction Series but the annual periods of 2015. I was also started as an answer to people trying to take the field is very white and male. Others of color and women. So this theory really sort of has 92 making and elevating the work of women and people of color. So those are two sources i draw upon specifically those two. So i try to be rep. In my classes in terms of what i put in front of students. Thank you, joseph. Joseph landed on your concern and for me as a high School Teacher it ties into kims is about who gets published where and when anthologies will you include what writers. Immaculate classes i teach, kingston and hawn. Especially but that is not enough. Now theres noblest to same falling out of my head japanese Market Novel zero down convenience store woman. Nonjapanese american, japanese woman and i dont remember her name but the book is amazing. Ive been limited in some ways this shows up in the anthologies recent, embodiment anthologies is because something like norton have choices of asian american authors in the american lit anthology is from recent the last ten years. So we have to do better not have to do better at that. My last question to all of you would be the title with langstons words. That is talking about social issues, social justice. You could dream a world, what kind of world would you dream. If you is essential when we are talking about moving to mars. Maybe get it right this time. I guess i would go back to the importance of hearing the widest range of voices and we need literature for two reasons. We need literature that exposes us to things that are outside of our own experiences and take us to new worlds we also need stories that reflects our experience in a furniture only has a tiny segment of the american population, then we have failed. I think continuing to open up the canon and continue to educate ourselves is crucial. I think my answer is basic but to be able to better direct our fear because fear is a powerful tool for survival. We have your fire when its coming for us we should not fear of asking differently or any of the reasons we should fear people. Closest the session with something from king that you find very inspirational, something that would be something we should take with us that would keep us warm during this winter in america, even though its spring. Yes. Id be happy to. Thank you. The first also it plays on some of Langston Hughes constructions, so the first poem in the second section is called 1963. Dr. King begins why we cant wait, describing a boy sitting on stoop in harlem and a girl working in a field in alabama. And he goes on to reflect from there about their hopelessness. This is 1963. A boy sitting 0 his stoop, the house leans hopeless as he is, the rats love him and his family they know him. He has nowhere to good, nowhere to be, dreams of nowhere. When he wakes after dreams of nowhere he goes nowhere. His school forgets him. He forgets him. His Parents Work but their exhaustion forgets him too. Is he a dream . Good nowhere explode . Two. A girl sits on her stoop, the Home Golder than her grandmother but not as stirredy. Field where her Parents Work is thirsty as she is but not at angry. She sets on the school but learns in a field because debts are loud and shout more fury than books. Three. This is the year, young people will sing, fury in a melody that hurts and a rhythm that burns, a flame so hot Fire Hose Shove these singers against walls, but those hoses and their water, their judges, county clerks, Governor And Country cannot extinguishing in. I hope people can pick up your work to provide a path to the future filled with light and joy. So thank you fog were here. Thank you. Thank you. Joseph, kim, tara, and that was a really interesting conversation, and after having the uncomfortable conversations about dismantling systemic racism and de devriesing plans to disvising plans and i want to go back to something that joseph said that stood out. Were live fog a vary challenging time,