The Next Verse Poets: Creative Expression as a Means for Social Action
Abstract
An article released almost a decade ago by the Poetry Foundation, and later republished by the Huffington Post, slammed today’s American poet, stating that “America’s poets have a minimal presence in American civic discourse and a minuscule public role in the life of American democracy.” The article further positioned American poets as “insular and clustered in communities of aesthetic sameness, communicating only among those with similar literary heroes, beliefs, values, and poetics.” The article’s faulty conclusion about how active poets truly are in their communities was appalling and limited in scope but did bring to light a very good question: How do today’s poets or for that matter, writers in any genre, use creative expression as a means for social action and engagement?
The Next Verse Poets: Creative Expression as a Means for Social Action
U-Hall 3-089
An article released almost a decade ago by the Poetry Foundation, and later republished by the Huffington Post, slammed today’s American poet, stating that “America’s poets have a minimal presence in American civic discourse and a minuscule public role in the life of American democracy.” The article further positioned American poets as “insular and clustered in communities of aesthetic sameness, communicating only among those with similar literary heroes, beliefs, values, and poetics.” The article’s faulty conclusion about how active poets truly are in their communities was appalling and limited in scope but did bring to light a very good question: How do today’s poets or for that matter, writers in any genre, use creative expression as a means for social action and engagement?
