Celebrate Black & African American Poets of Action Every Day
María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado, M.F.A., M.A.
Clark Fellow & PhD student, Binghamton University | multilingual Boricua poet & writer | feminist intersectional educator | grad faculty member, MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Bay Path University
February 1, 2021
In August 2020, I accepted the invitation to become a New England Poetry Club Advisory Board member in response to the leadership’s self-examination of its historical Whiteness as an institution. “As a western MA Boricua, intersectional feminist poet of action and college professor of color, I will contribute to the intentional transformation of this organization into a more inclusive, meaningfully supportive one for Black, Indigenous, and Poets of Color, whether they are new or established poets” was my statement then and now.
Every day and during Black History Month in 2021, I joyfully celebrate all Black and African American poets of action in action, starting with those who responded to the NEPC leadership’s call for more voices at the table to effect concrete change through their already existing work with poetry in communities.
I encourage you to read their biographies on the NEPC website: poets Charles Coe, Danielle Legros Georges, Regie O’Hare Gibson, Jacqueline L. McRath, and Denise Washington. For NEPC Advisory Board Members, poet Toni Bee and Jean-Dany Joachim, research their poetry in action online.
I encourage you as well to purchase their collections of poems to read and to give.
With joy,
María Luisa Arroyo
multilingual poet & educator