Critics Page
Proximity of Violence & Our Black Woman Bodies
By Mahogany L. BrowneClosing my eyes doesn’t take away the violent images, but it allows me to brace for the pain.
A Sketch about Genocide
By Tongo Eisen-MartinOriginally from San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin is a poet, movement worker, and educator. His latest curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. His book titled, “Someone's Dead Already” was nominated for a California Book Award. His latest book “Heaven Is All Goodbyes” was published by the City Lights Pocket Poets series, was shortlisted for the Griffins Poetry Prize and won a California Book Award and an American Book Award. His forthcoming book “Blood On The Fog” is being released this fall in the City Lights Pocket Poets series. He is San Francisco’s eighth poet laureate.
So What If I’m Not Ready To Leave Yet?
By Adam FalknerDr. Adam Falkner is a poet, educator and arts & culture strategist. He is the author of The Willies (Button Poetry, 2020) and Adoption (Winner of the 2017 Diode Editions Chapbook Award), and his work has appeared in a range of print and media spaces including on programming for HBO, NBC, NPR, in the New York Times, and elsewhere.
Untitled
By Joel L. DanielsJoel L. Daniels, also known as Joel Leon, is a Bronx born and raised performer, author and storyteller who writes and tells stories for Black people.
Fade In
By Cathy Linh CheCathy Linh Che is the author of Split (Alice James Books), winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies. Her work has been published in The New Republic, McSweeney’s, and Poetry. She serves as Executive Director at Kundiman and lives in NYC.
Keith Haring says every audience member is an artist because they create the meaning of a piece of art
By Jon SandsJon Sands is a winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, selected for his second book, It’s Not Magic (Beacon Press, 2019). His work has been featured in the New York Times, as well as anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He facilitates the Emotional Historians writing workshop, which you can learn more about on IG at @iAmJonSands.
Nature’s survival Apparatus
By Camryn BrunoCamryn Bruno is a 21-year-old spoken word poet, author and Curator at the Bowery Poetry Club. She has performed at the Brooklyn Library, The Apollo, The UN, The Public Theater, The Intrepid, The Apple Store and many more. Her poems explore women’s issues, social justice and community building and strives to help with Black women independence everywhere.
Illustrations by Rico Frederick
By Rico FrederickRico Frederick is an artist and writer from New York.
sex appeal
By Caroline RothsteinCaroline Rothstein is an internationally touring writer, poet, performer, and educator. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Narratively, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, NYLON, The Forward, Hey Alma, and elsewhere. Caroline and her work have been featured widely including in The New Yorker, MTV News, Chicago Tribune, CBS Evening News, Mic, and Newsweek. She is a Youth Mentor at Urban Word NYC and a facilitator for the Dialogue Arts Project. She performs poetry, speaks, and facilitates workshops and teaches year-round at colleges, universities, schools, summer camps, community organizations, and performance venues worldwide and virtually.
miscarriage
By Hala AlyanHala Alyan is a Palestinian American writer and clinical psychologist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Guernica, and elsewhere. Her poetry collections have won the Arab American Book Award and the Crab Orchard Series. Her debut novel won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and her second novel, The Arsonist’'s City, was recently published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
On Loyalty
By Suzi Q SmithSuzi Q Smith is an artist, activist, and educator. Her books Poems for the End of the World and A Gospel of Bones are forthcoming in 2021.
