Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivy, presents the state’s first black poet, Ashley M. Jones, at a ceremony held at the Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama on Wednesday, December 1, 2021. Jones is a creative writing teacher from Birmingham. Dive into the pain and difficulty of becoming a black man in America. Her latest book is a collection of poems entitled “Reparations Now!”. (AP Photo / J-Leaves)
Montgomery, Alabama (AP) — Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivy, is the first in the state to delve into inequality and the difficulty of becoming black in the United States in the same building that a southern delegation resolved to form. Recognized the winner of the Black Poet. The South Army 160 years ago.
Republican Ivy stood in the white dome-shaped parliament building and commended the honor awarded by the Alabama Writers Cooperative for four years beginning in January this year.
“Everyone in this room, and I add people from all over the country, is proud to be honored with this natural historical recognition,” Ivy told Jones during the ceremony. rice field.
As a poet laureate, Jones advocates poetry and writing in general during lectures and appearances in schools, libraries and other institutions. “I promise to make space for all of us writing,” she said.
Jones’ latest book, released earlier this year, is a collection of poems entitled “Reparations Now!”. In it, she writes not only about money, but about compensation in the more complete sense of rebuilding a society destroyed by generations of racial violence, division and prejudice.
Jones said in an interview that he believes that both poetry and history should tell the truth.
“I hope that through my position I can continue to spread the message and show that it is good for everyone when I actually confront the truth. Hiding things is quite useful. No, it really hurts more than it helps, “she said.
The appointment of Jones is “quite revolutionary,” said Ginny Thompson, author and executive director of the Alabama Writers Forum.
“She brings a strong statement, but she brings a lot of balance,” Thompson said. “So I think she has something to say that people hear.”
Jones’ recent books include the poem “Reparations Now, Reparations Tomorrow, and Reparations Forever.” In this book, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace talks about the depth of pain in his fourth inaugural address. Think about the black people and what could ever be an ointment. Partially states:
“What do you think I only want money? What do you think money can repay what you stole? Give me land, you me Give me all the blood torn from our backs, our veins. Give me a snapped neck and a woven rope to lift the body.
“Scream you silenced in a lot of dark and lustful rooms. The song you said was yours, but I know it came out of our lips first. Martin Luther King Return Junior and Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Return the beauty of the hair. The swell of the waist. The big of my lips. Return the entire Atlantic Ocean. Give me the endless blue. And the mule. “
Such words are challenging in a conservative state trying to remove racist words from the constitution passed in 1901 in order to protect the political power of whites. Earlier this year, the GOP-controlled state board of education passed a resolution banning the education of critical race theory. This is a semester claimed by conservative opponents, and whites are offended by past generations of racism.
“We have permanently banned critical race theory in Alabama. We focus on teaching children how to read and write, not hate,” Ivey said in a tweet in October. increase.
Jones teaches at the Alabama School of Art and she attended. She was happy to receive such an honor in a very conservative manner, but because Alabama’s writing community, like elsewhere, is generally more progressive than the general public. , Said not so surprising.
“Artists are always on different pulses,” she said.
Governor of Alabama Awards State’s First Black Poet Laureate | WGN Radio 720
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