Front page in @usatoday this week!
Feeling all sorts of gratitude to Phaedra Trethan for capturing so much of my story and depicting some of the magic I experience daily as a dream poet who sets up in public spaces around Philly and around the country.
Read the full article here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/23/philadelphia-poetry-busker/73326769007/
Marshall James Kavanaugh takes a battered old typewriter to a park and lets people give him a prompt for a poem. They walk away with a piece
Also worth it to say that in the print edition the other headlines sharing the front page speak to the very real struggles facing our world. I don't take it lightly that a feature on poetry was paired with articles about tyranny and the police state. I think that's exactly where the work of a poet belongs. To challenge those unfortunate norms and encourage a passerby to dream a better world.
I think of Joy Harjo's "Poet Warrior" or James
Baldwin's "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity", or Nina Simone's "An Artist's Duty", and so many other statements on how the Poet affects change.
I'm so grateful for these literary ancestors to guide me and my peers. Also, I wouldn't be anywhere without all of you who have consistently showed me so many facets of how poetry has an impact. Thank you!
