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The 61 poems in White Terror Black Trauma concentrate on some of the most traumatic events in Black history from colonial to contemporary times, from the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1619 to Black revolts, Civil War atrocities, incalculable lynchings, the Tulsa massacre, the brave sacrifices of Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, the heroes of school desegregation, the murders of Emmet Till, Dr. King, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Eric Garner, and Tyre Nichols. And so many other Black tragedies.

Inspired by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith’s conversations in the wake of the 2024 election, this is a collection of poems, essays, and visual art on what we—individually and collectively—can hold onto, and what we can work towards. In times of difficulty, with a government working against its own people, we must turn to our friends and loved ones to provide context, language, energy, and hope. The People’s Project offers a range of perspectives, drawing wisdom from their communities and histories.

This collection includes favorite English-language poems by 178 favorite authors, beginning with Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke in Elizabethan times, and ending with T. S. Eliot and Marianne Moore in the twentieth century. Cavaliers and Puritans, a famous king and a pilloried criminal, soulful lovers and sharp-witted satirists, Shakespeare and Jonson, Milton and Marvell, David Garrick and Rabindranath Tagore, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Christina Rossetti—all are here, in one constantly changing kaleidoscope of brilliant verse.