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I have two questions for you.

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One: whose shoulders[br]do you stand on?

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And two: what do [br]you stand for?

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These are two questions that I always [br]begin my poetry workshops with students

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because at times, poetry can seem [br]like this dead art form

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for old white men who just [br]seem like they were born to be old,

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like, you know, Benjamin [br]Button or something.

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And I ask my students these two questions,[br]and then I share how I answer them,

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which is in these three [br]sentences that go:

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I am the daughter of [br]Black writers,

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who are descended [br]from Freedom Fighters

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who broke their chains [br]and changed the world.

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They call me.

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And these are words I repeat in a mantra [br]before every single poetry performance.

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In fact, I was doing it in the corner [br]over there. I was making faces.

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And so I repeat them to myself,[br]as a way to gather myself,

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because I'm not sure if you know,[br]but public speaking is pretty terrifying.

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I know I'm on stage, and I have [br]my heels, and I look all glam,

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but I'm horrified.

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And the way in which I kind [br]of strengthen myself,

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is by having this mantra.

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Most of my life I was particularly[br]terrified of speaking up,

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because I had a speech [br]impediment,

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which made it difficult to pronounce [br]certain letters, sounds,

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and I felt like I was fine writing on [br]the page, but once I got on stage,

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I was worried my words [br]might jumble and stumble.

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What was the point in trying not to [br]mumble these thoughts in my head,

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if everything's already [br]been said before?

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But finally I had a moment of [br]realization, where I thought,

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if I choose not to [br]speak out of fear,

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then there's no one that my [br]silence is standing for.

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And so I came to realize that I [br]cannot stand standing to the side,

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standing silent.

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I must find the strength [br]to speak up,

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and one of the ways I do that is [br]through this mantra where I call back

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to what I call [br]honorary ancestors.

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These are people who might [br]not be related to you by blood,

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or by birth,

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but who are more than worth [br]saying their names,

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because you stand on their [br]shoulders all the same.

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And it's only from the height [br]of these shoulders

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that we might have the sight[br]to see the mighty power of poetry,

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the power of language made [br]accessible, expressible.

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Poetry is interesting because not [br]everyone is going to become

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a great poet,

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but anyone can be, and [br]anyone can enjoy poetry,

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and it's this openness,

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this accessibility of poetry that [br]makes it the language of people.

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Poetry has never been [br]the language of barriers,

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it's always been [br]the language of bridges.

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And it's this connection-[br]making that makes poetry,

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yes, powerful, but [br]also makes it political.

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One of the things that [br]irritates me to no end,

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is when I get that phone call, [br]and it's usually from a white man,

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and he's like, "Man, Amanda,[br]we love your poetry,

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we'd love to get you to write [br]a poem about this subject,

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but don't make it political."

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Which to me sounds like,

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I have to draw a square,[br]but not make it a rectangle,

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or build a car and [br]not make it a vehicle,

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it doesn't make [br]much sense,

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because all art [br]is political.

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The decision to create, the [br]artistic choice to have a voice,

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the choice to be heard is [br]the most political act of all.

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And by "political" I mean poetry [br]is political in at least three ways:

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One: what stories we tell,[br]when we're telling them,

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how we're telling them,[br]if we're telling them,

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why we're telling them,[br]says so much about

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the political [br]beliefs we have,[br]

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about what types [br]of stories matter.

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Secondly, who gets to [br]have their stories told,

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I'm talking, who is legally [br]allowed to read,

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who has the resources [br]to be able to write,

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who are we reading [br]in our classrooms,

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says a lot about the political [br]and educational systems,

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that all these stories and [br]storytellers exist in.

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Lastly, poetry is political [br]because it's preoccupied

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with people.

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If you look at history, [br]notice that tyrants often go

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after the poets and [br]the creatives first.

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They burn books, they try to get rid [br]of poetry and the language arts,

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because they're [br]terrified of them.

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Poets have this phenomenal [br]potential to connect the beliefs

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of the private individual with the cause [br]of change of the public, the population,

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the polity, the political movement.

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And when you leave here, [br]

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I really want you to try to hear the ways[br]in which poetry is actually at the center

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of our most political questions [br]about what it means to be a democracy.

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Maybe later you're going [br]to be at a protest,

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and someone's going to [br]have a poster that says,

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"They buried us, but they [br]didn't know we were seeds."

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That's poetry.

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You might be in your U.S. History class, [br]and your teacher may play a video

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of Martin Luther King Jr. saying:[br]

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"We will be able to hew out of this [br]mountain of despair a stone of hope."

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That's poetry.

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Or maybe even here, [br]in New York City,

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you're going to go visit [br]the Statue of Liberty

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where there's a sonnet [br]that declares, as Americans,

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"Give us your tired, your poor, your [br]huddled masses yearning to be free."

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So you see, when someone asks me to [br]write a poem that's not political,

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what they're really asking me is to not [br]ask charged and challenging questions

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in my poetic work,[br]and that does not work,

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because poetry is always at the pulse

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of the most dangerous and most daring [br]questions that a nation or a world might face.

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What path do we [br]stand on as a people,

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and what future as a [br]people do we stand for?

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And the thing about poetry is that it's [br]not really about having the right answers,

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it's about asking these right questions,[br]

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about what it means to be a writer doing [br]right by your words and your actions,

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and my reaction is to pay honor [br]to those shoulders of people

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who used their pens to [br]roll over boulders

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so I might have a mountain [br]of hope on which to stand,

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so that I might understand [br]the power of telling stories

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that matter no matter what.

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So that I might realize that [br]if I choose, not out of fear,

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but out of courage, [br]to speak,

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then there's something unique [br]that my words can become.

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And all of a sudden that fear that [br]my words might jumble and stumble

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go away as I'm humbled [br]by the thoughts

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of thousands of stories [br]a long time coming

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that I know are strumming [br]inside me as I celebrate

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those people in their time who stood up [br]so this little Black girl could rhyme

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as I celebrate and call their names[br]all the same,

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these people who seem like they [br]were just born to be bold:

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Maya Angelou, [br]Ntozake Shange,

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Phillis Wheatley,[br]Lucille Clifton,

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Gwendolyn Brooks,[br]Joan Wicks,

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Audre Lorde,[br]and so many more.

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It might feel like every story[br]has been told before,

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but the truth is, no one's ever told my [br]story in the way I would tell it,

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as the daughter of black writers, [br]who are descended from freedom fighters

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who broke their chains [br]and changed the world.

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They call me.

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I call them.

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And one day I'll [br]write a story right,

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by writing it into a tomorrow on this [br]Earth more than worth standing for.

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Thank you.