In September 2024, over twenty poets with geographical, genealogical, historical, political, and psychological ties to Mississippi came together for a poetry workshop inspired by a grassroots tradition of action in the state. Studying predominantly scarce archival materials, the weekly workshop had two goals. First was to learn how every decade in Mississippi saw a galvanized group of poets using community to turn poetic impulse into democratic exercise; how poets of a fugitive and undercommons class in an oppressive state understood themselves as both artists and political actors in an ongoing liberation project. The second goal was to understand how we belong to this tradition of craft and action in Mississippi–that a blueprint for ourselves could be read in the work of poets never recognized by the hegemonic literary canon, and in some instances actively silenced through violence and coercion.
From 1890-1999 Mississippi was vibrant with Black, Brown, Queer, and working-class poets, …
