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It's My Favorite Time Of The Year - National Poetry Month! 


I used to be a poet, a really bad one. I wrote awful poems, performed them at open mic nights, and often forced my friends to attend. To those who are still my friends, I'm sorry.

I thought poetry was just beautiful words sitting together. But poetry is more. It splits our world into tiny morsels, and reconnect each tentacle of our universe with vivid imageries, symbolisms, metaphors, and rhymes. Seeing our world from this poetic distance expands our outlook - we are not alone in the feelings that we feel. 

Poetry reminds us to be soft with ourselves and to be graceful with others. It reminds us that on the outside we are just regular humans but on the inside, we contain similes, hyperbole, personification, and a whole lot of magic. If we just slow down and listen to those voices on the inside, we can write at least one good poem!  

The poets who get paid for their work - drink Jesus' bathwater. How else can you explain that consistent magic? 

Have A Good Poetic Month! 
Our Feature Writer: Nikky Finney

NIKKY FINNEY was born by the sea in South Carolina and raised during the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Arts Movements. She is the author of On Wings Made of Gauze; Rice; The World Is Round; and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. 

When I found out that I'd be interviewing Nikky Finney, I felt like this:

 

We were supposed to chat for thirty minutes but an hour later, we were still talking about poetry, the magic of the ocean, and parallel parking. 

Nikky Finney’s poetry and essay collection: Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, uses “artifacts” such as newspaper clippings, personal and artistic images, and her own writing, giving the book an art gallery type of feeling— there are many things to see, touch, and read. In her book, Finney insists that black writers should be archivists to their own memories to sidestep a myopic history that has not included them.
 

Get ready for your mind to be blown! 
 
WATCH THE INTERVIEW!
COME WRITE WITH ME!
Date: Fri, Apr 23 | Zoom
Time: 1:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Sign Up Here! 

Who Is Brown Girl Book Lover? 

  • We interview BIPOC writers about their books and promote them. 
  • We review books by BIPOC & marginalized writers. 
  • We value & celebrate the intellectual contributions of BIPOC writers. 
  • We unearth published books by BIPOC writers and give them the limelight. 
My name is Leslie Ann Murray, and I’m a fiction writer, a book lover, a Trinidadian, a New Yorker, and your tour guide to literary diversity. 
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