So, why poetry? …Poetry, as with much of art, can allow us to practice the art of empathy. Empathy is fundamentally an act of the imagination: the capacity to imagine how someone else is feeling or seeing. Poetry demands that we engage this capacity to imagine in empathetic ways. Not all poetry does this, but most of poetry does. Empathy is not merely a gesture or a feeling but a gesture of intellect an act of willfully transporting oneself into someone else’s space, someone else’s body, mind, and if you believe that, into their soul. I believe this gift is one that has to be practiced. I believe the capacity to empathize can atrophy. I believe the capacity to empathize can be destroyed.”
-- Kwame Dawes
About this project
The creative writing students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock began curating this list in the fall of 2016 in order to bring together the best of the poems being published in response to the Black Lives Matter Movement. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. Instead, it's a starting place for reading poetry that celebrates, protests, calls out, and responds. We believe Black Lives Matter. Justice matters. Poetry matters. Read with us. Start somewhere. Start here.
H.K. Hummel
Little Rock, Arkansas
[email protected]
H.K. Hummel
Little Rock, Arkansas
[email protected]