PSA. The power of poetry: Celebrating Halifax Poet Laureate Afua Cooper
With Habiba Cooper Diallo, Martha Mutale, Andre Fenton, Evelyn White, David Woods
Poetry
Weekend video: Dear Black women, let’s talk about healing, Angela Bowden
Writer and activist Angela Bowden bares her soul as she speaks of the protection mechanisms invoked by Black women for centuries to survive a racist and hostile environment. But at what cost?
Three Fifths, a poem by Angela Bowden
Angela Bowden read this terrific poem at the rally in support of Santina Rao, the young mother falsely accused of shoplifting at the Mumford Road Walmart and violently arrested by four police officers in front of her little children.
Rally against the Halifax International Security Forum, photos and a poem by El Jones
“Things move slowly, but change comes, and it comes from us,” somebody said at yesterday’s rally against the warmongering Halifax International Security Festival. Here are some photos, and a poem by El Jones.
Sea of poppies, a poem by Charlie Toth
Nothing like a good old fashioned anti-war poem on Remembrance Day, and local poet Charlie Toth delivers.
Remember the ones have fought bravely
Think hard before sending more in,
The meat grinder that is war time
Doesn’t care if you have mother or kin.
Thandiwe McCarthy: Shadows at midnight – My search for Canadian Blackness
“As someone who only recently took identifying as a Black man seriously, I have struggled to look internally for the parts of me that are so socially visible and yet personally unfamiliar. Searching through music, movement and memory for the shadows that hide my Blackness in plain sight.” Thandiwe McCarthy
Lest we forget, a poem by Angela Bowden
A poem by Angela “Angee” Bowden, to remember that this month 400 years ago slaves first arrived in North America.
When the past is my present
And my scars still remain
And our lives still don’t matter
I am living in that pain
Policing Black youth, a poem and essay by Guyleigh Johnson
“I wrote this piece for the brown and black children who have to walk everyday in this world under a microscope that wasn’t created to get a better view, to understand, or to be seen, but to be defeated.”
A poem and an essay by Guyleigh Johnson.
Thandiwe McCarthy: Gangsta’s paradise – my struggles as a Black poet
“But a Black poet among whites can only dare hope to be a gangsta rapper. Suddenly my every rhyme was measured and directed by the only other source of Black knowledge they had: entertainment media.” Thandiwe McCarty writes on being Black and the barriers to finding your own voice.
Who I move beside, a poem by Chad Norman
A poem by Chad Norman about the men of the N.C.A, and others as well, dressed in whiteness, the little fellas with big hatreds. Donald, Jared, Andrew, Jason, Doug, and even Stephen…