Here lives poetry that resembles a sticky dance floor. Poetry that is at once terraformed music and primal shout and wet kiss and sweaty palm. The "American" in Bettering American Poetry is a kind of ghoulish placeholder for whichever more rebellious, more enlivening world comes next.
-Billy-Ray Belcourt
Amy King collaborated with the Guardian to curate this collection of poems. She is the author of five books of poetry, received the 2015 WNBA award, is a founding member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and teaches Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College.
EXCERPTS – Full Statements @ Poetry Foundation In other words, if I had never encountered poetry, I would never have become an activist—that is, if I, a black man who came of age poor and used to buy 5¢ candy with $1 food stamps to get change for the bus, am allowed to determine for…
AMY KING 