AST344 - 01 - Poetry for the People: Black Queer Poets

This course focuses on contemporary Black queer poets as conscience, witness, and scribe. We will examine the legacies with whom poets are in conversation and what poets offer in times of profound social distress. Close readings of several key poets will deepen our understanding of what makes social transformation possible; how my survival depends on yours. As June Jordan writes, These poems/they are things that I do/ in the dark/reaching for you/whoever you are."