I believe that these eight wonderful poets are the face of reviving the genre. I always want to push poems on people, so I’m also presenting you with some of their recent or upcoming works. Head to your favorite, local, indie bookstore and pick up a few of their collections before Black History Month is over!

‪There is sufficient evidence, both from Lorraine Hansberry’s own hand and from those with whom she interacted socially, that she was a lesbian. But the how of it all — that we have to piece together in fragments‬.

Many Black women are raised to give our apparent struggles the stiff upper lip. We’re taught to be loud, and proud, and bigger than the world sees us. And at the end of all of that effort, in my most private and intimate moments, I wish to lay my burdens down. Ain’t I a bottom?