Zoom: A A A

Virtual Open Mic: Poems of Persistence, Solidarity, and Refuge

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond. ― Gwendolyn Brooks

Split This Rock Virtual Open Mic announcement which includes a black background with red Split This Rock logo, text that reads

As we journey through political, economic, and global health crises, we turn to poetry to share truths that unearth underlying causes, illuminate impacts, and insist on transformative change. For many of us, today’s challenges are not new. The struggle of isolation, economic insecurity, inadequate medical care, deadly institutionalized negligence, governmental decisions that put Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, disabled, sick, and other structurally precarious people at greater risk are not new. Today, many more people are experiencing the vulnerability of these unrelenting issues. We recognize this opportunity for a heightened awareness of how our very survival depends on one another.

Poetry can help keep the flame of resilience, solidarity, and resistance alive in us. It can help us process and move through grief, anger, loneliness. Poetry can be a comfort when the most necessary actions are to rest and recover. It can remind us of what’s at stake, that our lives and legacy are worth the fight. As cultural workers, we know that culture shapes our political and social imagination at a foundational level. As poets, we can use poetry to map what is, what has been, and possibly, the way forward, including the reasons not to return to what does not honor and protect our lives, our communities, and our planet.

From late April to mid-May of 2020, Split This Rock asked poets to send us the words they chant to get out of bed, to raise their fists, to encourage their kin, to remind us, as this crisis does, that “we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Below are some poems that were sent before the virtual open mic closed in November 2020. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work! We were so moved by the incredible response and celebrate everyone who shared poetry with us.