They have not only transformed society but they have reflected that transformation in their lines. Sometimes quietly and sometimes with raucous abandon, they have cultivated their poetry, their terrible and beauty rage in the service of humankind. We honor her with this dedication because of her prophetic, poetic voice that is urgent, unashamed, graceful, redeeming and radical. Certainly there is no better time for such a voice. From South Central Los Angeles to Crown Heights, from Libertyville to recent assassinations on the Brooklyn Bridge, tensions among racial and ethnic groups in the United States are in volatile condition.
New media report an epidemic of violence that is gripping our country.
Violence has invaded every sanctuary where we expected safety. Chronic disease and AIDS are resulting in more casualties than combined modern wars and hopelessness, perhaps the most virulent and relentless intruder, has taken up residence in our homes, our minds, and our very sense of being. Gwendolyn Brooks is one of many poets who have dedicated their talent and their vision to the renewal of hope and the salvage of our society. And several of them such as Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Michael Harper, Sam Allen, Alvin Aubert, and Eugene Redmond are part of this conference. In fact more than 30 major poets and critics have come together to read their poems, talk about new approaches to African -American poetry, begin the serious business of writing a literary history of the poetic outpouring over the last four decades, and make the necessary connections with the cultural and folk traditions that ever inform and enrich it.