Of Poetry and Protest

3A panel presented by
The Guild Literary Complex + Rebuild Foundation

This afternoon with Angela Jackson, Haki Madhubuti, and Eugene Redmond, some of the most important Chicago-area poets working at the intersection of literary innovation and political resistance over the last 50 years, inaugurates a new collaboration between The Guild and Rebuild Foundation that builds on the widely praised 2016 anthology of African American political art and poetry, Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin (WW Norton) co-edited by Guild Founding Executive Director Michael Warr, who also joins in this collaboration. This program anticipates the late June installation, on the Stony Island Arts Bank’s lawn, of the Gazebo where Tamir Rice was murdered by the Cleveland Police. The Gazebo’s erection as a memorial will be accompanied by additional Of Poetry and Protest programming and a small exhibition co-organized by the Guild and Warr. Looking ahead, and reflecting on the deconstructed Gazebo currently on display, these Chicago area writers included in the anthology will gather to share work from the book and engage with Michael Warr, the collection’s Poetry Editor, about the histories, traditions, and experiences that their work draws on, and about the role that poetry and art can play in grieving, memorializing, and resisting the human cost that the systems of racial violence with which we live extract.