To mark Black History Month, we asked our PBS Selector Nick Makoha to select his top poetry reading recommendations:
“I was asked to pick 5 so I gave you 12. It could have easily been 20 but here are the poets I have been reading over and again. All original in concept and execution of craft but the real strength lies in their ability to show variance in the black experience. These poets give life a new context and possibility.”
Caleb Femi – Poor
Rachel Long – My Darling from the Lions
Roger Robinson – A Portable Paradise
Nicole Sealey – Ordinary Beast
Nii Parkes – Geez
Malika Booker – Peeper Seed
Raymond Antrobus – The Perseverance
Jay Bernard – Surge
Danez Smith – Don’t Call Us Dead
Tracy K Smith – Life on Mars (or Wade in the Water)
Terrance Hayes – Lighthead (or Sonnets to My Past and Future Assassin)
Harmony Holiday – Hollywood Forever
Rachel Long – My Darling from the Lions
Roger Robinson – A Portable Paradise
Nicole Sealey – Ordinary Beast
Nii Parkes – Geez
Malika Booker – Peeper Seed
Raymond Antrobus – The Perseverance
Jay Bernard – Surge
Danez Smith – Don’t Call Us Dead
Tracy K Smith – Life on Mars (or Wade in the Water)
Terrance Hayes – Lighthead (or Sonnets to My Past and Future Assassin)
Harmony Holiday – Hollywood Forever
