Nikki Grimes – Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

Full Episode description

Nikki Grimes, poet author and longtime friend of the podcast, shares LEGACY: WOMEN POETS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. Nikki’s new book showcases poems from the Harlem Renaissance written by Black women. Each poem is then followed by a Golden Shovel poem written by Nikki in response to the original.

The Golden Shovel poetic form, created by Terrance Hayes and described to readers by Nikki, “calls poets to take a short poem in its entirety, or a line from the poem, called a striking line, and to create a new poem using the words from the original.” I found many of these poems to be striking if not transcendent. These are beautiful, modern responses to the work of Harlem Renaissance poets that affirms and resonates our connects and experiences over a century passed. The poems are also accompanied by original art by Black female artists, many of whom have illustrated some of your favorite works for children today. All told, this is Nikki at her best and I say as much to her in our conversation.

You can access even more information about this book and its author by visiting www.matthewcwinner.com/blog.

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