The Indiana Writers Center stands in solidarity with all who raise their voices to oppose institutional racism, white supremacy, and police brutality.
The mission of the Indiana Writers Center is to reach out to those whose voices are rarely heard and help amplify them — without regard to what you look like, where you are from, your age, different ability, or whom you love.
And, the Indiana Writers Center believes that Black Lives Matter.
If there is ever a time for that message to be heard, it is now.
While the horrific death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, provided a spark that ignited widespread protests and demands for change, the fires of oppression and suppression have long burned like an inferno for people of color in our city, state and country.
While there are some voices clamoring in the midst of a pandemic to return quickly to “normal,” we believe this country should never return to a normal that includes the continued dehumanization of our brothers and sisters — a dehumanization that ends too often in unseemly, unjust death, as it did for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Dreasjon Reed.
In our mission, the IWC strives for all to experience the healing and joyful benefits that the written and spoken word brings. We also acknowledge that language can also emancipate and empower.
The late Toni Morrison once said:
“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence.”
Support Black Writers in Indiana
Here are a few suggestions:
Read the poem “Learning to Eat the Dead: USA” by poet and scholar Maria Hamilton Abegunde.
Check out the middle grade novel The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus, or find out about his writing conference, MoCon.
Jay Coles’s debut novel Tyler Johnson Was Here, is a young adult book based on true events in his life and inspired by police brutality in America.
Read the poem “Sleeper Cells (A Father Implants Life Maps)” by Curtis L. Crisler, and buy one of his poetry collections, like THe GReY aLBuM.
Mitchell L. H. Douglas was interviewed as the featured poet in The Indianapolis Review, and also shared three poems from his recent collection dying in the scarecrow’s arms: poems.
Read and share the poem “A Small Needful Fact” by poet and essayist Ross Gay, then enjoy his delightful short essay collection (and this month’s IWC Book Club for Writers selection), The Book of Delights.
Buy up the poetry collection Quick Fire by Allyson Horton, and find out more about her poetry in this featured interview by free-lance writer and poet Lydia Johnson.
Take a workshop with Angela Jackson Brown, buy the novel Drinking from the Bitter Cup or her poetry collection House Repairs, and check out her non-profit Jackson Brown Entertainment.
Support Chantel Massey’s Unlearn programs and buy her book Bursting at the Seams.
Buy Map to the Stars by Adrian Matejka, Poet Laureate of Indiana for 2018-19.
Read “To all survivors” by poet and social justice activist Manon Voice.
Reading Lists & Educator Resources
13 Books You Should Read About Black Lives
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
For Young Readers
‘No reader is too young to start’: anti-racist books for all children and teens
Resources to help you be informed
The Movement for Black Lives Matter
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)