Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin

If you follow this site you probably believe in social justice and civil rights, and if that’s the case, you’re in luck. This Thursday City Lights Bookstore is hosting the release party for Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin, a book that might be one of the most important works on civil rights of our time. The extraordinary compilation illuminates today’s black experience through the voices of our country’s most transformative and powerful African American poets. A book stated to “give voice to the current conversation about race in America while also providing historical and cultural context”.

The volume includes poems of 43 of America’s most talented African American wordsmiths with illuminating portraits by San Francisco based photographer Victoria Smith.

The collection includes Pulitzer Prize–winning poets Rita Dove, Natasha Tretheway, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tracy K. Smith, Elizabeth Alexander, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Harryette Mullen, Quincy Troupe, Jeannine Amber, Harry Belafonte, Amiri Baraka, The Reverend Dr. William Barber II, architect of the Moral Mondays movement, as well as images and iconic political posters of the Black Lives Matter movement, Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party.

Poets Devorah Majors, CS Giscombe, Al Young, and Michael Warr (Editor) will be present to recite their poems and their favorites by other poets in the anthology “Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin.”

Release Party for Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin 
Thursday 6/30
7pm-9pm
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Ave. @ Broadway
FREE

photo of Amiri Baraka by Victoria Smith