MoSt Poetry is grieving and angry over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and so many others. We’ve witnessed and in some cases participated in the protests in our cities this past week.
Our mission at MoSt Poetry is to celebrate poetry in Stanislaus County and celebrate Stanislaus County through poetry, but without justice and safety in our communities, it’s hard to go about our poetry work. Regardless of how you are connected with the poetry community, know that Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center stands with Black Lives Matter.
Poetry has always been a space for voices of resistance and resilience. We believe that our future as a nation requires us to engage in active anti-racism and to stand with a movement that is a key part of dismantling systemic racism in our country. It’s the right thing to do, and that’s why we’re writing this statement and taking actions. We know we can do better, and we’re listening.
What We’re Doing
- We are joining the Modesto Stanislaus NAACP and making a donation to support this group’s work locally.
- We are having critical, ongoing conversations about how to diversify our board and the poetry we share with the community. We would love to share more on that soon.
- We are committing to posting and promoting the work of Black, Indigenous, and poets of color on our social media as well as in our readings and workshops.
- We will continue to purchase and deliver core poetry libraries representing a wide variety of voices for K-12 schools in Stanislaus County, with emphasis on communities with underserved populations.
- We will continue to bring poetry to diverse and underserved communities, through readings, workshops, publication opportunities, and other poetry events, most of which are free and open to the public.
What We’re Reading and Who We’re Following
We’re also reading and learning, and we want to share with you some resources and leadership from BIPOC people.
Taharee Jackson’s A Practical Guide for White Allies and Accomplices.
The 1619 Project is an amazing work of journalism & the audio series is especially moving.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ powerful, meticulous piece on redlining and the way housing discrimination has had generations of impact is a must-read.
For anyone whose mother culture was white evangelicalism, Walter Wink’s work on power structures is incredibly helpful foundational reading. We also think this podcast with theologian Xavier Pickett lays out American church history so helpfully.
Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis, a New York Times article by Linda Villarosa on the long-term toxic consequences of living with the constant stress of being Black in America and its impact on mothers and babies
There are many voices and poets on Instagram and beyond to whom we can listen on race and poetry (and the place where they meet): Rachel Elizabeth Cargle, Ijeoma Oluo, Aja Barber, Layla F. Saad, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Blair Amadeus Imani, Mahogany L. Browne, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, Warshan Shire, Morgan Parker.
Donate & Support
We’ve individually donated to various nonprofits that help support Black communities across the nation. Here are a few you can support which address recent events:
Breonna Taylor Justice Petition
Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
Fundraiser for Ahmaud Arbery’s mother
Fundraiser for Tony McDade’s family
Noname’s Book Club, a book club started by rapper Noname, promotes literacy in the BIPOC community. With a monthly donation, patrons support discussion chapters in different cities across the US, support black-owned bookstores, and send books of the month to incarcerated folks so that they can join in on discussion.
Resources & Further Reading
The Obama Foundation’s resources on creating a more just and equitable world
A comprehensive Google doc on anti-racism resources
How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change, Barack Obama, Medium
The American Nightmare, Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic
Don’t Understand the Protests? What You’re Seeing Is People Pushed to the Edge, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, LA Times
Being Anti-Racist, National Museum of African American History & Culture
The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale: the ebook is currently free via Verso Books
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi is available free in audiobook format on Spotify
In Conclusion
We want to remind everyone that poetry, like other art, can be instrumental in helping shape social imagination and for working toward justice. Through poetry, we can connect deeply with ourselves and from that, we can work to make change. Poetry can help us give a name to the intangibles and urge them to come into being. We concur with Audre Lorde that “[p]oetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” This is why we felt it imperative to make our statement. The time to take action is now.