Kevin Young in the modern renaissance of poetry and Black voices
USC has partaken in the celebration of this year’s Black History Month through dozens of virtual events, showcasing a great variety of Black artists, educators, performers, researchers and more. These wildly talented guests have graced USC’s student body with their knowledge and experience, and Kevin Young is no exception.
On Feb. 26, Visions and Voices hosted Young, author and editor of several books such as the award-winning anthology, “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song,” poetry editor of The New Yorker, museum director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other things.
In this particular event, President Carol Folt led the conversation alongside Los Angeles poet laureate professor Robin Coste Lewis. The trio held a lively energy that centered around a topic generally associated with calm and sophistication: poetry. Their discussion showed that there is no one way to categorize the art form, except, as Folt pointed out, “When you hear those beautiful spoken words, it’s hard to not to begin to feel some enormous feeling of joy and purpose.”
When Young reads poems aloud, it’s no doubt that his purpose is being fulfilled. As he reads, he is like a vessel for the poem to channel through. The meaning seems to seep through his hand gestures, mesmerizing gaze and flowing voice.
The first poem read by Young was Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The soulful poem speaks volumes and could only be followed by Young’s own poem honoring the legendary Hughes, which ends with “Langston, Langston, Langston Hughes, won’t you send all heaven’s news.”
As evident in his leadership position in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, merging history with modern miracle is one of Young’s most unique talents. He said Hughes was a prominent part of his past before he even knew it, and, as he grew older, Young found that Hughes’ description of his early life in Kansas was akin to his own.
Young sums up his point by asserting that with age, “You start to see all the matrix of what you become.” This full-circle moment is poetic in and of itself, and shows up again with Lewis.
Folt asked Lewis about her long-lasting friendship with Young, and Lewis brought the audience back in time to her entryway into the poetry world. Lewis had been creatively writing for years, but the start of her legitimization of the hobby began when a friend gifted her some of Young’s poetry books.
It shocked her that a different kind of poetry than she had been taught in school existed — something that could blend together history and culture in an “aesthetic verve.” She recalled the joy in discovering “my history, the history of the great migration West, philosophical inquiry … archaeology and the ancient world” could be crafted into poems.
Never would Lewis have imagined that she and Young would be lifetime friends, nor that her work would be featured in his anthology. It is remarkable, but not surprising, that the poet’s life would reflect that same sense of magic that is interlaced in good poetry.
Recently that same magic is beginning to show itself to the public more and more, and Young declares that “we are in the midst of a renaissance.” Folt mentioned the rise of Amanda Gorman’s influence, a national youth poet laureate who performed at the presidential inauguration and Superbowl LV, and asked, “What do we do to support this and use this to change the underlying societal structures that need to go along to see this renaissance?”
Young’s answer to this massive question comes quickly as though he needed no time to consider, and the universal truth he reveals is as simple and exquisite as his poems. “Poetry has been saying this for a while: Pay attention, look, listen. These are the important things,” Young said.
USC Students have already been poetry’s call to action, from extraordinary work created in writing programs to abundant student-led literary societies and foundations. Lewis noted that during the pandemic, “poetry books have been flying off the shelf this year.” Now more than ever, youth are using poetry to make sense of the world around them, just as Young advised.
In today’s renaissance, Black voices should be at the forefront. After centuries of racism-based censorship, it is long past due for these lives to be given the world’s attention.
As Young points out, “[Poets] remind us that we are in a precedented time as well as an unprecedented one.”
There can be no celebration of the present or dreams of the future without sincere recognition of the past, and both Kevin Young and Robin Coste Lewis encourage this effort to be headed by today’s youth. Black History Month may be coming to a close, but the stories of Black experience must continue to be shared across USC’s campus and beyond.