{"id":22180,"date":"2014-10-02T16:49:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T20:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=22180"},"modified":"2014-10-09T16:05:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T20:05:01","slug":"emu-engaged-in-a-conversation-of-racism-by-an-acclaimed-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/emu-engaged-in-a-conversation-of-racism-by-an-acclaimed-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Acclaimed poet inspires dialogue about race, belonging, in the U.S. today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Reprinted with slight edits from the student-produced <\/em>Weather Vane, <em>Oct. 2, 2014. Written by first-year student Liesl Graber.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Lyrical words filled Lehman Auditorium last Wednesday evening, capturing the attention of both poetry fanatics and novices alike at the latest installment of Writer\u2019s Read.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Members of the EMU community gathered together to hear the words of acclaimed poet Evie Shockley. She offered a challenging perspective on modern racism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">The innovative young poet commanded attention from the audience with fullness of voice and idea, aiming to inspire dialogue about the meaning of race and belonging in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">\u201cGive me good energy,\u201d Shockley encouraged, \u201cbecause I can feel it in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Her request was unnecessary; energy seemed to surge from the audience as she read her works.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Reading primarily from her newest book, \u201cThe New Black,\u201d Shockley used her craft to encourage thinking, to encourage feeling, and to question preconceived notions about race.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">She proposed that freedom and equality do not exist in the quantities we have idealized; not enough has changed to liberate us from our pattern of sparking the hope of change before slipping back into racism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Reflecting on Obama\u2019s election in her poem \u201cMy Last Modernist Poem #4 or, \u2018Re Re-Birth of a Nation,\u2019\u201d Shockley notes, \u201cThis miracle marks an end like year\u2019s \/ end, the kind that whips around again \/ and again.\u201d The song of hope is cyclical, soon to be drowned out by the echoes of history.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Through her poetry, Shockley highlights the tension she feels between positive and negative legacies of her childhood.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">\u201cMy inspiration for this next poem,\u201d Shockley chuckled, \u201ccame from a good friend of mine who tried to sell his blackness on eBay.\u201d The audience expressed both relief and devastation by her jest, uplifted for a moment out of the crushing weight of sorrow evoked by the tangible darkness of her previous poems.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Shockley concluded by sending a metaphorical breath of life into several poems, including \u201cacrobatics\u201d and \u201cduck, duck redux.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">She chose to compose these poems \u201cjust for fun because language is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">The audience seemed to be in agreement, showing their affirmation with laughter and delighted murmurs of appreciation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">Following the poetry reading, listeners were invited to engage Shockley in a question and answer session.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">&#8230; [Questions] varied from \u201cWhat is your favorite poetic form?\u201d to, \u201cAs a southern black woman, what are you looking for when you look back on history?\u201d to, \u201cCan you see poetic language as a healing process for the United States?\u201d Shockley gave answers to each question.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">\u201c[We need] to take seriously the lessons of the past,\u201d Shockley advised. \u201cHaving the mindset that we\u2019re all in this planet together would prevent all the calamities we hope never come to pass in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #111111\">The sense of authority in her words lingered in the air long past the conclusion of the evening. Mike Medley, chair of the language and literature department, publicly complimented, \u201cThat was one of the most moving poetry readings I\u2019ve attended.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reprinted with slight edits from the student-produced Weather Vane, Oct. 2, 2014. Written by first-year student Liesl Graber. Lyrical words filled Lehman Auditorium last Wednesday evening, capturing the attention of <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/emu-engaged-in-a-conversation-of-racism-by-an-acclaimed-poet\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Acclaimed poet inspires dialogue about race, belonging, in the U.S. today<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14715],"tags":[16011,13608,6374],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-22180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life","tag-evie-shockley","tag-lehman-auditorium","tag-writers-read"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Acclaimed poet inspires dialogue about race, belonging, in the U.S. today - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/emu-engaged-in-a-conversation-of-racism-by-an-acclaimed-poet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Acclaimed poet inspires dialogue about race, belonging, in the U.S. today - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reprinted with slight edits from the student-produced Weather Vane, Oct. 2, 2014. 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