Poetry
"For every poet it is always morning in the world. History a forgotten, insomniac night; History and elemental awe are always our early beginning, because the fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world, in spite of History." - Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize in Literature (1992)
Find the complete text of Walcott's Nobel Lecture here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1992/walcott/lecture/
" I feel especially strongly that one of the strengths of poetry is making connections—or making connections visible—and, therefore, one of the ways we can use our art to promote social justice is by writing in ways that help people see that the small pieces of the puzzle we’re each focused on all come together in the big picture. Most people want to live in a just world. What we need more than anything right now is for more of us to understand that our various ideas about what justice looks like are not necessarily competing or conflicting, but are connected and interdependent." - Evie Shockley, interview with Cave Canem: A Home for Black Poetry
Find the complete text of Shockley's interview here: https://cavecanempoets.org/dogbytes-interview-evie-shockley/