Poems in this category create new worlds. Through image, sound, and metaphor, these poets travel time and space, bringing readers into more liberated visions of the future. Through the audacity of imagination, these poets dare to envision what may be possible.
HOW TO NAVIGATE
- Clicking on the title takes you to a page with the text of the poem (pdf).
- Clicking on the title with a speaker icon
takes you to an audio recording of the poem (mp3).
Title of Poem | Author |
Poem recorded as part of Meridel Le Sueur’s 90th birthday celebration in Minnesota (1990). | Meridel Le Sueur (accompanied by Matthew Siegel on flute). Meridel was a lifelong revolutionary, writer, and feminist visionary of French, Irish, and Lakota ancestry, and a Minnesota-based supporter of AIM and all liberation struggles (1900—1996). |
Recorded as part of a reading of selected poems from the Asian American Writers Workshop in the program Third World News Bureau (date unknown). | Luis Syqiua Poet and activist of the I-Hotel struggles involved in the Kearny Street Workshops brought into community Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean artists and writers, using art as a tool for social change. |
Read as part of El Festival Del Sexto Sol live recording, produced by Nina Serrano as part of the Comunicación Aztlan Collective, KPFA (1974). | Alurista (Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia) Chicano poet and activist born in Mexico in 1947. |
Read as part of the “Poetry and Rap for Black August” recorded event, produced by Kiilu Nyasha with KPFA (exact date unknown, recorded sometime in the 90’s). | Dumile Sadiqa Vokwana Poet and vocalist born in Cape Town who co-founded Amandla Poets, a musical group dedicated to bringing awareness to the plight of human suffering in South Africa and throughout the world. |
| All in the Streets Featured in the 1969 edition of “Black Dialogue Magazine Vol IV No. 1.” | Amiri Baraka (fka LeRoi Jones) Poet, playwright, essayist, teacher, and activist. Known as one of the preeminent Black intellectuals of our time (1943—2014). *Note: the published poem uses the spelling Ameer, not Amiri. |
Recorded as part of select poems by the Asian American Writers Workshop in the program Third World News Bureau (date unknown). | Author Unknown |
What felt most compelling to you about the futures expressed in these poems? Have any of the visions imagined by these poets been realized since the time of their writing, or do they still feel distant?
Invitation:
Close your eyes and take a breath. What do you imagine when you dream of a more liberated future? What do you see, feel, hear when you envision this reality? What/who is part of this picture? What/who is absent? Write a poem from these visions.
