Three decades after poet Frank X. Walker coined the term ‘Affrilachia,’ the region’s poets and artists continue to create work that probes the world of a people long ignored.
If humans only translate what it is familiar to them, something essential is lost. The art of translation requires the permission to transcend borders and make mistakes.
John Keats by Joseph Severn (1819).
National Portrait Gallery
Doubt can be uncomfortable. It is often tempting to jump to conclusions. But Keats counsels otherwise.
Like the best myths, the tale of Igbo Landing and the flying African seems to transcend boundaries of time and space.
Victor_Tongdee/iStock via Getty Images
They can seem daunting to write but are wonderful to receive so here are a handful of tips to write your own love poem.
Fragments of Sappho? The 2014 discovery was of five stanzas of one poem and portions of a second.
('Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene,'1864, by Simeon Solomon)
At the turn of the 20th century, with few children’s books featuring Black characters, one young editor implored his peers to ‘Let us make the world know that we are living.’
American poet Amanda Gorman reads a poem during the 59th presidential inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021.
Patrick Semansky/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The rise in the popularity of Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, represents a prime opportunity for educators to use spoken word poetry in the classroom.
National youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman recites her inaugural poem during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)
The first national youth poet laureate in the United States taps into the power of generativity, a concept that refers to creating a legacy that lasts beyond our lifetimes to shape future generations.
Both governments and community organizations promote Robert Burns suppers. Here, an official United Kingdom government photo shows the haggis brought in at the British Prime Minister’s residence, Jan. 22, 2018.
(Number 10/Flickr)
Both Burns and the suppers that celebrate him have proven remarkably malleable symbols worldwide of the Scottish nation and Scottish hospitality.
Six Tuscan Poets by Giorgio Vasari, 1544. Dante Alighieri,
Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch, Cino da Pistoia, Guittone d'Arezzo and Guido Cavalcanti are depicted in the oil painting.
Wikimedia/MIA
The history of Italian literature cannot be understood without the vernacular poets. But their works were largely unknown until Lorenzo ‘the Magnificent’ sent a gift to the Prince of Naples.
Tara June Winch has won Australia’s two major writing prizes in one year.
Penguin Random House
These two prize-winning books speak volumes about how we face trying times, might recognise the beauty in brokenness and maybe find ways to repair the wounds of the past.
J. P. Clark was one of Nigeria’s most eco-conscious writers.
Ommoclark2020/Wikimedia
In the drama of envisioning a future for the United States, Joe Biden and Donald Trump both invoked stories about snakes to suggest different views about self-interest and the common good.
Nigerian poet J.P. Clark was activist in his writing.
Guardian Nigeria