March 29 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Why Poetry Matters in an Unjust World
Even though empathy has been said to be detrimental, it is in fact what makes us human, bends the arc of the universe toward justice, champions equity, and encourages our compassion for each other. Poetry has long been a reflection of that empathy. It is often our earliest interaction with language and teaches us what is required, while challenging and calling out our baser impulses. Poetry matters in an unjust world.
Jacqueline Allen Trimble is the Poet Laureate of Alabama, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow (Poetry), a Cave Canem Fellow, and a two-time Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals including POETRY, The Louisville Review, The Offing, Salvation South and Poet Lore. Her work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Kwame Alexander’s This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poetry, and has been featured by the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day, American Academy of Poets’ Poem-a Day, and Poetry Daily.
Also an essayist, Trimble’s work has appeared in numerous collections. She also wrote for the South African television series Die Testament for two seasons. Published by NewSouth Books, American Happiness, her debut collection, won the 2016 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was recently re-released in paperback. Her newest collection, How to Survive the Apocalypse, was named one of the ten best poetry books of 2022 by the New York Public Library. Trimble is Professor of English and chairs the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University.