Black Women in Entertainment
13 Young Black Poets You Should Know
April was is in full swing last month and the air is filled with poetry and spring. In honor of National Poetry Month, here’s a list of young black poets you should know. Follow them on Instagram and Twitter, and let their poetry fill you with inspiration to jot down (or shout out) your own verses.
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DANEZ SMITH
Danez Smith is a spoken word artist best recognized for inspiring the soulful beat within listeners with his poem, “Twerking as a Radical Act of Healing.” Within his poetry, Smith utilizes a mix of commanding rhythm and language to address the intersectionality of race, sexuality, and personal and social identity. He is the author of [insert] Boy and the chapbook hands on ya knees, and is a founding member of multicultural spoken word group, Dark Noise Collective. Check out his amusing, insightful tweets @danez_smif. Poem to check out: “Twerking as a Radical Act of Healing”
2. AJA MONET
Once described as “[t]he true definition of an artist” by Harry Belafonte, Aja Monet is a world-renowned poet, singer, educator and human rights activist from Brooklyn, NY. She is the youngest person to win the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café Grand Slam title, has performed at NAACP’s Barack Obama Inaugural event, and has been named “One To Watch” by the YWCA. She currently teaches the therapeutic beauty of poetry to inner city kids as a Teaching Artist for Urban Word NYC and Urban Arts Partnership in NYC. Check her out on Twitter @aja_monet. Poem to check out: “You Make Holy War”
3. MALCOLM LONDON
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Dubbed “the Gil Scott Heron of his generation” by civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West, Malcolm London is a quadruplethreat as an award-winning poet, educator, organizer and TED Speaker. Only 21 years old, London has won awards at the Louder than a Bomb youth poetry slam, has performed poetry about the front lines of high schools in a TED Talkand has been featured on national news outlets, including NPR, The Chicago Tribune and The Root. London divides his time between shedding light on the juvenile justice system as coordinator and advocate of Northwestern Law School’s The Know Your Rights Project and educating young folks on the power of writing and performance as a teaching artist at Young Chicago Authors. Check out this black power ranger drop knowledge on social issues within his native Chicago on Twitter @MalcolmLondon. Poem to check out: “Never Too Late”
4. SAFIA ELHILLO
A Sudanese by way of Washington, D.C., by way of NYC, Safia Elhillo is a lyrical poet whose raw words leave her listeners (including yours truly) spellbound and begging for more. Among her increasing list of accomplishments, she has released her first collection of poems, has been published in several anthologies, including music-themed Again I Wait for This to Pull Apart, and has shared the stage with music legends Gil Scott-Heron, Faith Evans and ?uestlove. Her latest manuscript, asmarani, was recently selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the 2016 New African Poets chapbook box set. She is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry at The New School in NYC. Follow her on Twitter @mafiasafia where she shares the dates and venues of her latest performances. Poem to check out: “self-portrait with dirty hair”
5. ALYSIA HARRIS
She may call herself “she who wrestles with God”, but Alysia Harris is undoubtedly a goddess of verse. Harris first garnered wide attention for her passionate poem “That Girl” on HBO’s Brave New Voices, and has since squeezed the hearts of her audience as a member of The Strivers Row, a spoken word collective. This month Harris and fellow poet/friend Jasmine Mans will document their encounters and experiments as sister artists of color on their MOMMA …
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