“U.S Mint announced it has begun shipping out the first quarters featuring trailblazing American women, beginning with poet, writer and activist Maya Angelou, the first Black woman to appear on the quarter. “
“Angelou is depicted on the coin with her arms uplifted. Behind her are a bird and the rising sun, which are “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived.”
The poet, educator and activist will receive a cash award of about $250,000. The prize is for an artist who “has pushed the boundaries of an art form” and “contributed to social change.”
This week, we bring you A Wreath For Emmett Till, a Coretta Scott King Book Award andMichael L. Printz Award honor book published in 2005 by the Houghton Mifflin Company and written by award winning poet, author, educator, and translator, Marilyn Nelson. Nelson is the daughter of one of the last Tuskegee Airmen, and keeping with the family tradition of making history, Nelson is a three-time finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Robert Frost medal, served as Connecticut’s poet laureate from 2001 to 2006, and recipient of many other honors and awards.
In the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, Nelson shares the harrowing story of the 1955 lynching of 14 year old Emmett Till. Nelson was nine years old when this atrocity occurred and bore witness to the international outrage stemming from the case’s lack of due-justice. This notoriety led to Emmett Till’s mother Mamie Till Mobley becoming a key civil rights activist. Meant to be used as an educational tool for young adults when covering the topics of racism and hate crimes against Black Americans, Nelson creates a lyrical masterpiece of 14 poems that make reference to many other famous poets’ works, which our copy has a full set of notes on. The ending poem is an acrostic, made up of the first letter from every individual poem’s title, spelling out “RIP EMMETT L TILL”. Each sonnet’s title can be read as a line within the individual poem and can also be read as its own poem when compiled.
This country we love has a Janus face: One mouth speaks with forked tongue, the other reads the Constitution. My country, ‘tis of both thy nightmare history and thy grand dream, thy centuries of good and evil deeds, I sing… .
A perfect selection for anyone wishing to learn more about the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
I’m looking for writers on behalf of Mental Realness Mag for its next print issue. Only looking for submissions from black queer, nonbinary, and/or trans folks. Each accepted submission is paid!
Review: ‘Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems’ by Warsan Shire
Review: ‘Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems’ by Warsan Shire
[ID: ‘Book Reviews’ and ‘Sabrina @ Notes From a Paper Plane Nomad’ in lilac and yellow text on a space-themed background.]
…At each and every checkpoint the refugee is askedare you human?The refugee is sure it’s still human but worries that overnight,while it slept, there may have been a change in classification.(Excerpt from the poem ‘Assimilation’.)
