Poems in this category demonstrate how poetry can be used as a tool to carve one’s own story and image, often in resistance to dominant narratives that perpetuate repression. To define and determine how one’s self or one’s community is represented is an assertion of agency.
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).
*For each author, we have done our best to include a bio with the information available to us. In instances where archival and public-facing information is unavailable, the bio is left blank. If you have insights to biographic information, please send us an email: info@freedomarchives.org.
Title of Poem | Author |
Aquittal Poem featured in the collection “To Our Comrades Inside: New Year’s 1987 From the Real Dragon Project.” | Thulani Davis Interdisciplinary scholar, a veteran journalist, and a writer working in theater, fiction and non-fiction. |
Give Me Back Poem featured in the collection “Native American Voices: Thanksgiving ’88 So We Never Forget” compiled by G. Esterman from IKON, Art Against Apartheid, This Bridge Called My Back, Writings by Radical Women of Color, Interracial Books for Children bulletin. | Chrystos Menominee poet and activist born in San Francisco, California. Her work examines themes of feminism, social justice, and Native rights. |
Beyond the Cliffs of Abiquiu From the collection “Native American Voices: Thanksgiving ’88 So We Never Forget” compiled by G. Esterman from IKON, Art Against Apartheid, This Bridge Called My Back, Writings by Radical Women of Color, Interracial Books for Children bulletin.” | Jo Carillo An American legal scholar, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Indigenous Law Center UC Law San Francisco. |
Poem read as part of El Festival Del Sexto Sol live recording, produced by Nina Serrano as part of the Comunicación Aztlan Collective, KPFA (1974). | Elias Hruska Cortes |
Dos Culturas // Two Cultures Featured in the “Aché Periodical: The Bay Area’s Journal for Black Lesbians” Volume II. No. I, February 1990. | Amiri Baraka (fka LeRoi Jones) Poet, playwright, essayist, teacher, and activist. Known as one of the preeminent Black intellectuals of our time (1943—2014). |
| Prologue From the collection, “From a Land Where Other People Live” (1973). | Audre Lorde Self-described “Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet” whose activism and writing advanced the fight for liberation along intersectional lines. |
Reflection:
Do you see yourself or your loved ones reflected in any of these poems? What resonates with you, or alternatively, what feels to be missing?
Invitation:
What are the identities you feel most strongly within yourself? What are the stereotypes or projections you want to push against? Place yourself at the center of the poem and write a portrait of yourself or of your community.
