DANEZ SMITH READS FROM THEIR COLLECTION, DON’T CALL US DEAD

This video is a reading from Danez Smith, a queer, non-binary, openly HIV-positive poet from St.Paul, Minnesota whose poetry collection Don’t Call Us Dead was a National Book Award finalist in 2017.

This poem in particular conveys their sense of grief, frustration, and eventual rejection of white America in search of a better world that cannot be co-opted or overwritten. This radical rejection offers them an opportunity to explore a world of possibilities for people of color that is not limited by white expectations, judgments, or violence.

“How much time do you want for your progress?”

-Danez Smith, Dear White America

“That reading and panel last night, tho. Li-Young Lee, Cornelius East, Danez Smith, and me—bug-eyed with excitement.” by zadriana is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0