All to often, our list of Black poets and artists gets limited to the writers who have been anthologized over an over again. I see Langston Hughes “Harlem” and Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” in so many curriculums, but the problem is that these poets, these phenomenal poets, are often reduced to that one single poem, or, even more damningly, they represent the end of the list of Black poets that students are exposed to in high school.

Here are a few familiar poets and a few new ones to help energize and change that single narrative that’s traditionally offered. These poems will not only help you have authentic conversations about racial literacy in your classrooms, but they’re small lessons that build up toward a year-long goal of an anti-racist/anti-biased curriculum. As always, if you’re new to teaching poetry in general and struggling with how to get started, start here. with my comprehensive ebook or grab my signature poetry analysis tool The Big Six to help you start having deep conversations about poetry with your classes. Otherwise, here’s your list. Enjoy!

CLINT SMITH

There’s not just one poem of his to recommend to you — it’s his entire book Counting Descent. These poems range from black history to contemporary black experiences with police brutality. Smith is a teacher and his writing is elegant and sophisticated, while still work that is approachable for students. Get a feel for his moving voice in his TED Talk: “The Danger of Silence”.

Muriel Rukeyser’s* “Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars)”

*NOTE: Muriel Rukeyser is a white woman, not a Black woman, however; the video animation of this poem has been designed to illuminate the civil rights struggle of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and is worth studying and discussing this school year*

This video is a gorgeous animation of the poem that uses a split screen to tell the story of two women growing up in two different civil rights movements. This is immediately applicable in the 2020/21 school year, but will be for a long time after that as well. Have students read the print version of the poem, then have them watch the video, and finally have a conversation about the artistic interpretation of the film. Did the film do the poem justice? Which moments were powerful on the page and which were powerful on the screen? Do you think the original poem was intended for the animator to tell the story this way? Why does that matter - or not matter?

Audre Lorde

Another fabulous yet overlooked Black poet is the feminist and activist Audre Lorde. The Poetry Foundation shares this quick bio of Lorde that’s important to read to build some context for reading her work. She was a ferocious, unapologetic “warrior” (her own words” and her pieces are a great study when looking at the element of Speaker (if you’re using The Big Six, you know what I mean!). I especially love teaching “Who Said it was Simple” as I approach the idea of complexity with my students. The poem is about protest and could be a beautiful parallel with some nonfiction about the #BlackLivesMatter protests of the summer of 2020.

Black Lives Matter Tribute (Memphis Poets)

This particular poem haunts me. It has low viewership considering how long it’s been on YouTube and it’s a piece that should be seen by everyone. This poem/video production is emotionally raw and will absolutely start a powerful discussion in your classroom. The opening alliteration alone makes for a great moment to stop and think about using that tool to open the piece and the visual representations chosen to accompany the poem make for a poignant lesson that could easily take an entire class period. This poem will position you to start or continue conversations about police brutality, #BlackLivesMatter, and the injustice in the American criminal justice system. Consider pairing this poem with discussion about Tom in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Gwendolyn Brooks: “We Real Cool”

If you’re going to teach “We Real Cool” (and you should, because it’s amazing!) think about using this video to accompany your anthology or text book. The Poetry Foundation created this beautiful artistic version of the poem that uses Brooks’ own voice and you can hear her comment on her own surprise that that poem, of all her poems, is the one that people have held on to.

Rudy Francisco

If you haven’t listened to Rudy Francisco yet, I humbly urge you to GET ON THAT. Francisco is one of my student’s favorite poets — he is one of my go-to spoken word poets for so many reasons: his charisma, his use of metaphor, his use of irony…truly the list goes on and on. Again, for teachers working through The Big Six, his poems are long making them a great place to study the poetic turn. I like to section Francisco’s poems by their emotional curve, making them a perfect place to get into analyzing the power of turns in poetry.

Taylor Lauren Davis: “Coming of Age”

You guys. This. Poem. Is. FIRE. “Coming of Age” will resonate with so many students and is perfectly primed for students to write their own imitation. In her poem, Davis explores the roots of her name and how she has reckoned with the “colonizing” that must have made her mother name her Taylor. Have your students listen to her poem, put it in the context of other coming of age stories, and have students write their own coming of age poem that has an element of research about their own names. This one will be added to my classroom this year and I can’t wait to see what my students think!

Raych Jackson “Church Girl Learns to Pray Again”

Raych is a teacher and fellow Chicagoan and, simply put, she’s good people. Raych has a heart and a mission to educate students that’s as big as I’ve seen in an educator. Her poetry is stunning - especially this piece. In the poem, the speaker retraces the steps of her faith journey and the struggles of accepting and resisting God and prayer. It’s real, raw, and beautiful.

Lamar Jorden: “Shooter”

Lamar is another Chicagoan and friend of mine whose poetry always gets my students talking and reinvigorated about poetry in general. I teach “Shooter” at the beginning of the semester to showcase the power of student voice; at the time of the performance, Lamar was in high school. We also talk about how the world has changed, for better and for worse, since his poem was published. The discussions that follow this poem are important and worth having in your classrooms. Lamar has moved more into the hip hop/musician route since high school, and that’s also worth checking out.

Maya Angelou: Phenomenal Woman

Every year I teach Angelou’s “Still I Rise” (because it’s amazing, not because it’s anthologized!), but I also teach “Phenomenal Woman” on International Women’s Day every March. The two poems have a similar style and rhythmic pattern (which we look at and talk about), but I love “Phenomenal Woman” for the scope of womanhood that it encompasses. My students love it so much that we actually performed our own version of it — check it out below!

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