Diversity in Poetic Literature is Resistance

The beauty of great poetry comes from both the creative presentation and from the vulnerability it presents. Poetry is not only something meant to be read but something that is meant to be felt. The emotions are meant to be shared between reader and writer. The true art of poetry is that it teaches the reader how to empathize. The reader is given full access to the intricacies of the writer’s mind in ways that only art can achieve. In order for the reader to truly experience the art, they must engage fully with the thoughts of the writer and essentially find humanity in the experiences of another person. People of the diaspora have long been robbed of this prospect. So rarely are we exposed to the full human experience of people of colour, be they characters or otherwise. Instead, people of colour are watered down to be one-dimensional at best. It is important to see writers and characters that are both evil and good at the same time, ambitious but lost, happy and also confused. As it stands, characters and writers alike are only afforded visibility if they fit into a specific narrative. People of colour deserve to be complex. People of colour deserve to be recognized for their own complexities. Poetry has always been a safe haven for rebellious and radical minds because of the honesty it allows. Often through poetry, we are introduced to internal conflicts that for the most part are taboo subjects. It is the comfort found in this honesty that makes it a revolutionary art.

The reader is meant to recognize him or herself in the writing. This can only be the case if more writers of colour are writing for their own audience. In accepting the complexities of diasporic writers, it is important to recognize that the experiences of people of colour do not mirror the experiences of white men and women.

Our complexities differ. This is why representation matters, especially in such an intimate genre of writing. Young generations of children in the diaspora are not relating to the content that they are being taught. Poetry is taught as something that should be relatable and something that should elicit an emotional response, however, the poetry that is introduced to them was never targeted towards them. It is written both for and by a completely different demographic. It does not account for their experiences. Instead, this generation of young children are being reminded that they are not the norm. Readers who have to search for poetry and art that recognizes their feelings ,are forced to believe and are constantly reminded that they are an inconvenience and an exception.

The reality of the matter is that a safe space in which people of colour are the norm does not currently exist. In literature, it does not exist because writers of colour are not permitted creative autonomy. In everyday reality, people of colour are not afforded humanity at all. Poetry should be the starting point for both of these things. Diversity in poetic literature provides a significant opportunity for readers to engage directly with the minds of the people of the diaspora. Further, it is important that in engaging with writers we learn to empathize with the complexities of different demographics in order to afford them humanity. Only when we accept the differences in experiences to be recognized and told through various perspectives, can we accept them as fully human. People of colour deserve to curate their own realities, realities in which they are multifaceted beings. This is the first step to a reality in which people of colour do not exist out of convenience and obligation but as the norm—as beings who are entitled to the space that they take up.