"Most English teachers in the 1950s and '60s simply taught the 'literary canon'—writing they thought was good for you, like cod liver oil. Few knew how to convey the passion and impact of the ideas and images a poem conveys, leaving generations of students dreading the word 'poetry' as if it were code for incomprehensible boredom."
"Black Arts Movement poets like Audre Lorde (who proclaimed, 'Poetry is not a luxury') cracked open the code. I understood; Smokey Robinson's lyrics ignited something inside of me, and a lyric poem could do the same."
"So, to start this disordered new year, I'm bringing some poets into my everyday reading, starting with Cheryl Clarke (@bdpoet), whose classic book of poems Living as a Lesbian and her essay 'Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance' opened new pathways in literature and Black feminist politics."
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