Poets Criticize Poetry Foundation’s Statement on Black Lives Matter

More than 1,800 people have signed on to an open letter criticizing the Poetry Foundation’s response to the protests sweeping the United States, pledging not to work with the organization until it meets demands that range from replacing its president and board chairman to redirecting funds to antiracism efforts.

The Chicago-based foundation is one of the nation’s wealthiest literary organizations, with an endowment that exceeds $250 million. The letter, posted online over the weekend, was issued by 30 poets connected with the foundation, including Ocean Vuong, Eve L. Ewing and Danez Smith. It was prompted by a brief, four-sentence statement the foundation issued on June 3, expressing “solidarity with the Black community” and declaring faith in “the strength and power of poetry to uplift in times of despair.”

Almost immediately, the statement drew criticism and ridicule on social media. In the letter, the poets called it “worse than the bare minimum” and an insult to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African-Americans whose deaths in encounters with police prompted the protests.

“As poets, we recognize a piece of writing that meets the urgency of its time with the appropriate fire when we see it — and this is not it,” the letter said. “Given the stakes, which equate to no less than genocide against Black people, the watery vagaries of this statement are, ultimately, a violence.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/books/poetry-foundation-black-lives-matter.html