A tremendous cultural protest project is taking place in the poetry community. The Cave Canem Foundation--the most prestigious fellowship for Black poets in America (disclaimer: I'm a Fellow, but I thought this decades before I applied and was accepted)--has called on Fellows to bear witness to the Ferguson debacle. If you follow the #BlackPoetsSpeakOut hashtag on twitter, youtube or other social media you will find videos. I've been watching them all morning. Below are links to the places you can find the compilations. Cultural workers are so important to social movements, justice movements and activism. I'll check this thread as often as I can. Please view/share/repost, etc. these poems. No one is making money from this, it's not a self/organizational promotional tool. This is artists using art to speak out and witness.
**Decided to add a link to Danez Smith's "Who Has Time for Joy?"
#BlackPoetsSpeakOut -- this is a youtube playlist of the witnessing project Cave Canem put in motion. Many of these were added from Jonterri Gadson's list.
A tumblr for this project can be found here.
And Facebook links to the poets who did not upload to youtube, as well as the youtube uploads can be found here.
VONA: Voices of Our Nation--another important incubator for people of color to develop our art--VONA artists have also uploaded videos and the fellows who are both CC and VONA have compiled a comprehensive here.
The original Cave Canem Facebook page that has the videos uploaded here.