I come to bring history, and we have to hang on to hip hop culture, he insisted. As for the cultural bandits who rip off rap and run to the bank, They can take it because we got some new stuff tomorrow, he finished to a round of applause. She believed that young poets of color do make an impact on the world. Recalling the influence of Quincy Troupe and Sonia Sanchez on her career, Anglesey then went all the way back to the nation s first poet, Phillis Wheatley. She freed herself with her writing, she said, reading from prepared notes.
Imagination allows a poet to fly.
The deep, melodious voice of Carl Hancock Rux caught everyone s ear, making his words all the more profound and digestible. He offered a mini-bio of his background in foster care and the obstacles he had to overcome on his way to being a poet. Writing to him is a way of testifying. He got a choral response. Perhaps the oldest of the panelist, Jon Yasin, confessed that he was not a poet, but admitted to being a lifelong observer of African American literature, linguistics and their impact on culture both here and abroad.