This is Poetry Moment on WPSU – a weekly program featuring the work of contemporary Pennsylvania poets. Your host is poet and author Marjorie Maddox, a 2023 Monson Arts Fellow, author of more than 20 books, and Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University.
Welcome to Poetry Moment. I’m Marjorie Maddox
In February 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson initiated a week-long celebration of African-American achievements. He chose the month, in part, to honor the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
In 1976, the events, strongly supported by President Gerald Ford, were renamed Black History Month. Today’s poem, “Another Black History Month” by Le Hinton, briefly portrays events from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. These historical excerpts, however, are not cause for celebration.
Le Hinton is the author of seven poetry collections including, most recently, Elegies for an Empire (Iris G. Press, 2023). He is a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania. His work has been widely published and can be found in Pleiades, The Best American Poetry 2014, The Progressive, The Baltimore Review, and Little Patuxent Review. In addition, his poetry is incorporated into Derek Parker’s sculpture, "Common Thread,' outside Penn Medicine Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
“Another Black History Month” by Le Hinton is a linked poem in three parts. In its brevity, it packs three painful punches, underscoring this country’s repeated history of injustice. The first two sections begin with an epigraph. In the final section, the word "future" is typeset, then crossed out.
Here’s “Another Black History Month” by Le Hinton.
Another Black History Month
Revolution [19th Century]
“any free person, who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any slave within the State to read or write… shall be liable to indictment”
To learn, we break the law.
Read
fast.
Pick
slowly.
Read,
then
hide
what’s
read.
We learn to break the law.
Sunday Morning [20th Century]
"but as I write these words now I cannot stand and sing “the National Anthem.” I have learned that I remain a black in a white world." -Jackie Robinson
I will sit right here for now.
Blood
staining
Birmingham
glass
Blood
spinning.
Blown up
blood.
For right now, I will sit here.
The Content of Our Color [21st Century]
future just a dream~
brother’s
hands
held
high
brother’s
done
bleeding
out~
brother’s
dream a just future
“Another Black History Month” first appeared February 2018 in The Skinny Poetry Journal, an online journal that publishes only skinny poems, a short form created by the poet Truth Thomas.
That was “Another Black History Month” by Le Hinton. Thanks for listening.
Listen for Poetry Moment with Marjorie Maddox, Mondays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WPSU. You can view more episodes at wpsu.org/poetrymoment.
Our theme music is by Eric Ian Farmer.
