This strategy worked well for Barack Obama during his presidential campaign in 2008 — his stirring speeches were often compared to poetry, drawing on eloquent orators and activists like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr. (Fittingly, Mr. Obama dabbled in lyrical poetry as a college student and is a notable champion of poets.) In his famous address “A More Perfect Union,” about racial tensions and his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, he echoed the phrase “that anger” several times for emphasis:
“That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends.”
“At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.”
“That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems.”
Off the campaign trail there is an audience for poetry, especially in relation to social issues. The video of the feminist writer Lily Myers performing “Shrinking Women” has received more than 5.8 million views on YouTube. (“Women in my family have been shrinking for decades; we all learned it from each other, the way each generation taught the next how to knit.”) The self-described feminist poet Reuben Holmes, who writes under the nom de Instagram “r.h. Sin,” has a million-strong following and his last collection of poetry was a New York Times paperback best seller.”” To read the entire article click NYTimes
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