HAPPY POETRY MONTH! Back in 2018 I posted a clip on here of a young performer, Orlando Watt , on YouTube  performing a snippet of my poem ...

This afternoon  Cave Canem hosted a celebration for the great 20th century  African American poet Russell Atkins , who had turned 96 just a ...

It has been a while since I posted poems for Black History Month, but this year  Rutgers-Newark made it fairly easy by inviting me to tape s...

It's official! Punks , my new book of poems is officially in the world! You can order a copy directly from my publisher The Song Cave , ...

Shira Dentz I first saw some of Claude Monet 's (1840-1926) "Waterlilies" paintings on a school trip to the Art Institut...

A few years ago, when her first book appeared, I shared two poems by giovanni singleton , a poet I've known and been a fan of for ye...

Rita Dove, in 2017 (from Wikipedia.com) One of the highlights of my youth was working across the hall from Rita Dove  (1952-), one of...

Douglas Kearney Posting poems about art works and ones using ekphrasis has been illuminating, because one thing I've always known a...

Another one of the greats, Cecil Taylor , is gone. He passed away on April 5. As longtime J's Theater  readers know, I've posted...

Robin Coste Lewis One of the leading volumes of poetry published in 2015 was Robin Coste Lewis 's debut,  The Voyage of the Sable V...

Derrick Austin The first time I came across this poem at wildness  by Derrick Austin , directed there via Twitter (and I think I retw...

Tyehimba Jess Several years ago, Tyehimba Jess (1965-), winner of last year's Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his innovative, rich and...

Will Alexander, Celebration for Bob Kaufman, San Francisco Public Library, April 11, 2016 Living art can withstand the peril of the vit...

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths In a marvelous move, the new Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden , has just named Tracy K. Smith  (197...

Within the last few weeks, two major Black poets, Mari Evans  (1919/1923?-2017) and Derek Walcott (1930-2017), have passed. Unsurprisi...