Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.

Daniel R. Cobb: America Looks in the Mirror and Sees Donald Trump

No doubt about it, Donald Trump represents a great tragedy and a threat for the American political system. But in spite of the GOP’s feigned reaction of horror to Donald, … Continue reading

March 18, 2016 · 3 Comments

Rebecca Gordon: Turning American Communities Into War Zones, Death By Death

When It Comes to People of Color, the Police Make San Francisco “Baghdad by the Bay” In the photo, five of Beyoncé’s leather-clad, black-bereted dancers raise their fists in a … Continue reading

February 25, 2016 · 1 Comment

Vanessa German: My People Know about the Tears

sometimes i hate you. sometimes i hate you and i feel it rising up in my throat spine lips acid a neon shaft of rage through a red needle an … Continue reading

February 4, 2016 · Leave a comment

Paul Christensen: The Paradox of Diversity

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the history of American immigration is all about bringing in scab labor to keep down wages and to force established workers … Continue reading

February 2, 2016 · 2 Comments

Jose Padua: Recollection During a Light Storm in the Valley

On 14th Street near Avenue B I’m walking in New York City during the short middle of a long summer day behind a lovely, young, brown-skinned mother pushing her child … Continue reading

January 18, 2016 · Leave a comment

George Yancy: Dear White America

In 2015, I conducted a series of 19 interviews with philosophers and public intellectuals on the issue of race. My aim was to engage, in this very public space, with … Continue reading

December 31, 2015 · 1 Comment

Daniel R. Cobb: Isis – A Cup We Have Filled With Hatred

The claim to be a civilized society, the claim to be rational, advanced, even superior, is utterly bankrupt of any truth if, at those very moments when civility and rationality … Continue reading

December 29, 2015 · Leave a comment

Who is Ruby Bridges?

Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 to Lucille and Abon Bridges, who had four other children, giving Ruby three brothers and one sister. At age two, Ruby and … Continue reading

November 14, 2015 · Leave a comment

Leonard Pitts, Jr.: We don’t want to watch the police, but we have to

The question was first posed by Juvenal, a Latin poet whose life spanned the first and second centuries: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Translation: “Who watches the watchmen?” The old question … Continue reading

October 31, 2015 · Leave a comment

Vanessa German: I believe in healing

black madonna on a paper towel from the public restroom at the shadyside hospital emergency room. where i have been too many so many times. up in there. knowing my … Continue reading

October 20, 2015 · Leave a comment

Chris Hedges: A Pipeline Straight to Jail

The defeat of the Harvard University debate team by a team from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility in the Catskills elucidates a truth known intimately by those of us … Continue reading

October 15, 2015 · 3 Comments

Kathleen O’Toole: Small Comfort — Writing Across Race

A voice on the radio back in 2001 started me down this road—the voice of Sarah Collins, whose sister Addie Mae was one of the four girls killed in the … Continue reading

October 6, 2015 · Leave a comment

Vanessa German: Laughter and Blackness

It is not like i am ashamed of my sorrow. or even ashamed of my rage. i am rage. i am outrage. i am the blues. i am blue. i … Continue reading

October 6, 2015 · Leave a comment

Jose Padua: In the Season of Blue Afternoons and Starry Starry Nights

. It’s 1979 and I’m just out of college and loving the landscape doing the only kind of traveling I can afford when the Greyhound bus stops along the highway … Continue reading

September 14, 2015 · Leave a comment

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