Black poetry ‘can barely be contained’
Kevin Young’s star has been burning bright for some time now. His work as a poet and essayist has centered on darkness, Blackness and even “Bunkness.” He is The New Yorker’s poetry editor and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.
Young’s latest curatorial work is “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song,” an anthology featuring hundreds of poets from 1770 to the present — from Phillis Wheatley’s “On Imagination” to Jamila Woods’s “Ode to Herb Kent.” Its hundreds of pages take readers through verses on slavery, activism and identity from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Amiri Baraka to Lucille Clifton. Widely known names mix with lesser knowns, and movements such as the Harlem and Chicago renaissances (Black Arts Movement, Cave Canem, Dark Noise Collective) are given context. As Young writes in the anthology’s introduction, the aim is to provide “a comprehensive look at the centuries of song and struggle that make up African American verse, a legacy that is fruitful and large enough to barely be represented by one volume.”
From bondage to the New Negro, from Caribbean poets to Afro-Latinx poets and those of Creole heritage, Young’s anthology is a deep dive into the lives and words that moved generations from one creative period to the next. It took six years for Young to pull together this tome. The process a reminder of the ways “poetry itself, especially African American poetry, still awaits discovery,” Young writes.
We talked with Young prior to the Oct. 13 release of the anthology and the initiative centered around its publication, “Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters.” The initiative will include online events hosted by libraries around the country from September through February. The project will include poetry readings, commentary and a timeline of African American poetic tradi
tion. The interview has been condensed and edited.
Q: How does one condense the greatness that is African American poetry into 1,000 pages?
A: The tradition of African American poetry is so vital and rich that it can barely be contained. Especially right now, people are writing in what I think is a real renaissance of Black poetry and they’re leading the way of the renaissance in American poetry, more generally. I think you see the ways contemporary poets have just exploded in numbers, but also the quality of poetry now. In this moment, for Black Lives Matter and protests, I see a lot of poetry coming out that thinks about race and injustice in powerful ways and in ways that are very prescient. I think the anthology captures that long struggle as well as the song that I mentioned in the subtitle.
Q: What do you hope the anthology achieves?
A: I think there’s a lot these poets can teach us about daily life as African Americans. The history of African America is often written in its poetry; it certainly first was written there. There are AfroLatinx poets, there are Creole poets starting in the 19th century, poets writing while enslaved, poets writing all across moments of history. To realize that poetry can capture history and that right now poets are doing that already — I think people can see the ways that poetry is relevant to their lives. African American poetry has always spoken on the lower frequencies, it’s always talked about day-to-day life, the blues, music and dancing, pleasure and pain — all the things that make up humanity. There’s a real tradition of speaking to people and meeting them where they live, and I hope this anthology does that.
Q: Were there any surprises during your research?
A: I was pleasantly surprised to see how many 19th-century poets there are. People might know about Phillis Wheatley, the first Black writer to publish in the United States. But they might not know in between her and, say, Paul Laurence Dunbar were a host of other poets often writing in protest of slavery and that there were a lot of women poets writing. I was really eager to make sure that we represented that part of the tradition. I think people will be pleasantly surprised to find in all eras these poets, who sometimes have been overlooked, are better than we might remember.
Q: Was there any moment over the last 250 years that was more prolific than others?
A: We’re in a powerful renaissance now. People know about the Harlem Renaissance, but right before then and right after in the 19-teens and in the ’40s and ’50s, there are some really fascinating writers. You see this across the 20th century — ebbs and flows of publishing. There weren’t many women who published books even though they were writing and publishing in magazines. The ongoing efforts of recovery of those poets speaks to how there are still some blind spots even during that Renaissance. You also see that in the ’60s, in the Black Arts Movement, where you see tons of poets being published, but not so much in the ’80s, when a lot of that opportunity shrunk. I think the anthology does good work in trying to uncover some of those voices that might otherwise be missed. In the times when there’s less publishing, you have to do a lot of work, because there was some, but it often wasn’t in the most obvious places. So, turning up those sources, that’s what I think an anthology like this can do is find and track down poets who aren’t always available, even online.
Q: The “Lift Every Voice” initiative comes to Chicago in November. What can we expect?
A: What I love about “Lift Every Voice,” which centers around the anthology, is it takes the poetry and provides voices to it. We’re going to honor the anthology in its breadth, but also that rich Chicago part of the tradition. I talk about and trace the Chicago Renaissance in the ’40s and ’50s — folks like Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard
Wright and Margaret Walker were in Chicago. I assume it’s going to be virtual — a way to be in your living room but participate in this long history and see some of the best poets connect with this work. What’s great about poetry is it’s waiting for you and it can tell you a lot about where we’re at and what’s next.
Q: Illinois is looking for our next poet laureate; do you have any thoughts for who would fit in that role?
A: Whoever it is, I know they will do a good job, but Chicago is such a rich poetry city. I’m actually writing about Chicago for something else right now and I’m struck all over again at how important it was.
The local “Lift Every Voice” event is slated for Nov. 12.