Don't you just love a good public library? Those of us born in the pre-internet world fondly remember wandering up and down the isles of the local public library, looking for the next great read or the critical info for that paper due too soon. Public libraries today have adapted to the new digital world and are still going [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday (actually, "Thoughtful The Day after Thursday" this week) shines the spotlight on the amazing Kevin Young, aka "One of the Hardest Working men in Poetbiz". Young was born in 1970 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his BA from Harvard University in 1992 and his MFA in creative writing from Brown University in 1996. Young’s awards and [...]
The selection of today's Thoughtful Thursday offering, "The First Book" by the celebrated poet Rita Dove, was inspired by yesterday's post about LeBron James' wonderful new IPromise public school in Akron Ohio. The school is designed to inspire middle school students who are performing below their grade levels. Helping them with reading skills will surely be an important part [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday features a wonderful poem by Terrance Hayes called "We Should Make a Documentary About Spades". Hayes, a professor of creative writing and co-founder of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, is the author of eight collections of poetry, including American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Poets, 2018), How to Be Drawn [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates summer, with the help of four wonderful Black poets. We begin with classic summer musings from Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906) and Claude McCay (1889-1948). Dunbar, one of the first African American poets to gain national recognition, wrote poems in both standard English and in what was called "Negro dialect". While his dialect poetry is generally [...]
On the day after Independence Day, today's Thoughtful Thursday offerings give us food for thought about celebrating these United States at a time where we feel so far from united. The first is a series of excerpts from Frederick Douglass' "What to the Slave is The Fourth of July", a powerful speech he gave to a group of New [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday is dedicated to the memory of Antwon Rose, 17, of East Pittsburgh. Another young black man gunned down by a police officer, shot and killed while running away. What possible harm could a police officer have believed himself to be in from a young man running away from him? In memory of Antwon Rose and the [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday poem is from DéLana R. A. Dameron. Dameron, a South Carolina native, is the author of How God Ends Us, a collection of poems selected by Elizabeth Alexander for the 2008 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. Dameron’s poetry, non-fiction and fiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and she has received fellowships from the Constance [...]
Hello GCP'ers! Yes, it has been a while, and while it is not actually Thursday, (let's call it "Thursday Plus") here is a lovely Thoughtful Thursday poem for you all, "Blessing the Boats" by the renowned African American poet Lucille Clifton (1936-2010). Born in Depew, New York in 1936, Clifton's first book of poetry was published in 1969. She [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday pays homage to the thousands of students across the nation who are making their voices heard in their fight against gun violence in schools and on our streets. May we all be inspired by these wonderful poets--Haki R. Madhubuti, Langston Hughes, and Claude McKay--and their poems which have energized activists everywhere over the years. Share these [...]