The Wrong Kind of Black Poet

It wasn’t until 2025 that the trouble reached my door. But it began long before that, in June 2020, after the death of George Floyd. The Poetry Foundation, a richly endowed arts organization, was condemned by a group of thirty poets after it published a note of “solidarity with the Black community” that the poets viewed as “non-substantive.” In their letter, the poets—former recipients of its fellowships, including Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, and Kaveh Akbar—demanded sweeping changes. The leadership, as they saw it, was ineffective, insensitive to the hour, and had to resign. The signatories demanded that funds be distributed to a particular class of poets (black, Hispanic) and to specific organizations, such as Assata’s Daughters (“a queer Black woman-led and youth-focused organization rooted in Black Radical Tradition,” according to its website). The letter received more than 1,800 signatures. Four days after its publication, the Poetry Foundation’s president and board chair resigned.