Poets to speak on poetry’s role in social movements

Minnesota poets who contributed to the essay and poetry collection We Are Meant to Rise will speak in a virtual panel Saturday, April 30, noon to 3 p.m.(CDT).

Entitled We Are Meant to Rise: The Poetry of Social Movements, the poets will be asked to discuss how poetry contributes to how social movements form,  mature, and are understood in history.  Panelists will include co-contributors Sun Yung Shin, Douglas Kearney, Arleta Little, Michael Torres, Kevin Yang. The discussion will be led by moderator Danez Smith.

We Are Meant to Rise tells the story, from the point of view of Minnesotan writers of color, of the racial reckoning that began in Minnesota with the murder of African American George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.

The virtual reading and roundtable discussion will close out Poetry Month, and is sponsored by TruArtSpeaks, an arts and culture organization in St. Paul with a focus on youth and young adult artists.  For information on how to register, see the TrueArtSpeaks website at the link below.