February 4, 2019
Go Where You Love: Claudia Rankine on Poetry & Privilege
When Ohio Poet Laureate (and KR Blog contributor) Dave Lucas learned he would be moderating a conversation with poet Claudia Rankine, he contacted a friend for advice. “OH MY GOD,” […]
February 28, 2017
Citizenship (Part Two)
Earlier today I glanced at my Facebook News Feed and saw, as usual, post after post about the president. He was doing what he always does: playing footsie with the […]
August 5, 2016
Ghost Stories, Systems
Between sad, hateful blats from Trump’s trumpet and the usual political dogwhistles came the (largely unheard in national mainstream media) dirges for three (more) Black women killed, in the words […]
February 28, 2015
Citizen Alert
It feels as if everyone who’s teaching a poetry class this semester is teaching Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. (I’m sure it’s being taught in nonfiction courses, as well; it’s been nominated […]
January 26, 2015
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is a book deeply embedded in the body, in the body before race, as in the body unable to escape either itself or its color. Race ignites […]
May 21, 2010
Summer Reading Stack
When I was a kid, I knew summer vacation had truly begun when my mom piled us into the fake-wood-paneled station wagon and drove us to the local library. I’d […]