The #BreakBeatPoets Anthology is officially out today!
You know that feeling when someone who knows you really well makes you a mixtape? Or when a new song comes out & you know you’re gonna be telling your kids what you were doing the first time you heard it? This book is all of that & more.
As a teaching artist, #BreakBeatPoets is basically the Barney Bag in poetry form. You can literally carry it around with you and have prompts All Day. I’ve taught several of the poems so far in classrooms and YCA workshops and I love how much conversation is happening between writers. Hip-Hop is in the water. It’s in the words & in the silences in between. This anthology is a brilliantly curated collection of poems, and it’s a gift to have a name for their makers: “The BreakBeat Poets.” (shouts to Idris Goodwin)
The Hebru cover art is perfect because being included in this generation of writers feels like being inducted into a society of superheroes & vigilantes. One of the co-editors Kevin Coval says, “Hip-Hop saved poetry.” Hip-Hop is what keeps poetry relevant, relatable, real. You can find these poets in Poetry Magazine & Essence (wait on it.) This book could be sold in the poetry section of university bookstores and in shoe stores & record shops. I’m so thankful to Kevin, Nate & Quraysh for including me, & honored to have my work featured alongside my poetry fam (the dark noise collective).
You can cop your very own copy here: http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/The-BreakBeat-Poets.
In the meantime, please check out these three goodies on the Poetry Foundation site. They know what’s up:
1. Co-editor Nate Marshall’s essay on why hip-hop has everything to do with poetry
3. The PoFo’s video featuring Fatimah Asghar, Nate Marshall, & Krista Franklin.
jamila woods 