EPISODE FOURTEEN: We Can't All Be Martin Luther King

In this episode we discuss a variety of interlinking subjects. We begin with a semi-in depth look at Martin Luther King's "Other America" speech and talk about the mischaracterization of King in modern day narratives with regard to the riots and protests of today. We also discuss poetry as a means of capturing the experience of being Black in America, briefly discussing the works of poets like Sojourner Truth, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Julian Bond and Jayne Cortez. The show wraps up with a discussion of the brilliant National Book Award Finalist-- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine.

Links to content discussed below:

MLK Article on Salon

MLK Speeches: Other America and Letter From Birmingham Jail

Sojourner Truth Ain’t I A Woman

Paul Laurence Dunbar: Selected Poems

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Selected Poems

Claude McKay: Selected Poems

Langston Hughes: Selected Poems

Countee Cullen: Selected Poems

Julian Bond: Look at That Girl

Naomi Long Madgett: Selected Poems

Nikki Giovanni: We Too, Nikki-Rosa

Jayne Cortez: There It Is

Amiri Baraka: Wise I

June Jordan: Jim Crow the Sequel

Maya Angelou: Mama Welfare Roll, Equality