Poetry of Empathy & Change, the Solidarity of Poets, the Traveling Stanzas project & more

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 26, 2016 Poetry of Empathy and Change   We turn to poetry for meaning, as well as for a community that speaks for the human condition and rallies for understanding, empathy, and change. Read the following poems, which were among the top-visited poems on Poets.org in the last few weeks.   “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou “My Philosophy of Life” by John Ashbery “September 1, 1939” by W. H. Auden “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks “A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes “I, Too” by Langston Hughes “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye “not an elegy for Mike Brown” by Danez Smith

A Sudden Poem @ the Crossroads   Read “@ the Crossroads—A Sudden American Poem,” a new poem by U.S. Poet Laureate and Academy Chancellor Juan Felipe Herrera addressing the tragic events of the past few weeks and calling for a time of reflection, remembrance, and change. Browse poems about gun violence. Read Muriel Rukeyser’s “The Life of Poetry, Chapter 1.” Browse poems about identity. Traveling Stanzas   Our friends at the Wick Poetry Center are starting a global conversation through poetry with the Traveling Stanzas project, an inclusive, interactive multimedia poetry showcase accessible online and in public spaces throughout the community. Find out more about the project and where it’s headed next. On the Power of Solidarity   In a recent post on her Brain Pickings blog, Maria Popova takes a look at a 1968 letter from the Academy archive written by a group of sixteen white poets in support of poet and activist Amiri Baraka, who had been the victim of police brutality. Read more on Brainpickings.org. Chancellors Respond with Poetry   In times of adversity, suffering, and injustice, poets may choose to speak out through their art. When the Academy of American Poets Chancellors read last October as part of the annual Poets Forum, they presented poems that responded to questions of identity, the self, society, and the world around them. Listen to a full audio playlist of the reading. Dodge Poetry Festival Interviews   This fall, our annual Poets Forum will be presented as part of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey. Check out the festival website for more information on ticketing and programming, and visit the Dodge Blog for featured Q&As with the Chancellors, including Jane Hirshfield, Alicia Ostriker, and Arthur Sze. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038