Wanda's Picks Radio Show National Poetry Month Special

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

Today we feature 20 poets who share words of inspiration and hope.  Here is a link to their bios: https://wandasabir.blogspot.com/2020/04/national-poetry-month-special-friday.html

We also commemorate Dr. King, on the anniversary weekend of his death, April 4, 1968, a day he was taken from us before we were ready to let him go. I have a few poems from the canon to share. I'd like to start with one by Qwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), Poet Laureatte of Chicago, author of the Maud Martha chronicles and the classic work, "We Real Cool." 

'I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.''Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917), African American poet. As quoted in I Dream a World, by Brian Lanker (1989).

Sonia Sanchez's Morning Song and Evening Walk; Aurielle Lucier's What Dream America?

The work is taken from Nadia Alexis's "Five Poets Honor Dr. MLKing"