“The whole audience was so moved by her words, we all were dabbing our eyes. It was the most beautiful moment, a testament to the power of books in children’s lives. This is why it’s necessary to give ALL children visions of themselves in stories, why we owe them the richness of their worlds reflected back to them and shared with others.” We all just want to be seen. “Devastated, I googled “Pottermore sorting hat crisis.” I revisited my answers to the quiz. Sure, I answered “black” and “vampires” on every question, but having dark proclivities shouldn’t make one bad. I’m the twee kind of goth, like Edward Scissorhands. It is true that I’m fond of true crime shows in which they dissect gruesome murders, like the podcast My Favorite Murder, and yes, I recently stayed at a haunted hotel on purpose. And OK, so my Instagram feed is 90 percent witches. But still.” Slytherins are fun, okay!? “f you’ve been to a Baptist church, you know what a poetry reading feels like. The meaning reverberates in each line and stanza, inciting an “umph” or snap or clap from listeners to validate what the speaker just said. Elder ladies fanned themselves with one hand and snapped agreement with another every Sunday as I sat beside my grandmother in church, and at poetry readings that “holy feeling” ripples through me whenever I hear the work of the four poets I asked to take part in this roundtable: Anastacia-Renée, JP Howard, t’ai freedom ford, and Safiya Sinclair. You are different after experiencing their poems.” Know them.
