By Lily Papendick
With the month of February comes Black History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout U.S. history. In honor of this month, the Black Student Union (BSU) collaborated with the Student Activities Committee (SAC) to host the African American Poetry Series.
Following Community Poetry Night on Jan. 30 and a reading from guest poet Elijah Kelly on Feb. 7 in Isaac’s Auditorium, the poetry series concluded with a passionate reading from guest poet Javon Johnson on Feb. 17 in Degenstein Theater.
Johnson is a spoken word poet, writer and professor best known for his powerful storytelling and gripping pieces on racial and gender inequalities. Johnson holds a B.A. and M.A. in communication studies from California State University, Los Angeles. He earned his PhD in performance studies from Northwestern University. Johnson is the author of “Killing Poetry: Performing Blackness, Poetry Slams and the Making of Spoken Word Communities” and his more recently published poetry collection “Ain’t Never Not Been Black.” He also co-edited “The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape” with author Kevin Coval, and has written for The Huffington Post, the Root and Our Weekly as well as serving on the editorial board for Text & Performance Quarterly. Additionally, he is a three-time National Poetry Slam champion and a four-time national finalist. Currently, Johnson serves as the director of African American and African Diaspora Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada.
Throughout the night, Johnson repeatedly mentioned the importance of his daughter to his work, performing many poems that had been inspired by her. One poem in particular, “A Letter to My Unborn Daughter,” was especially fascinating, as Johnson said he wrote the poem many years before his daughter was born, simply because he always knew his first-born child would be a girl.
Johnson performed many pieces from different points of his career, including “Letter From Michael Jackson to Justin Bieber,” a piece that warns Bieber about the exploitative nature of the music industry from the perspective of Jackson. He also performed “cuz he’s black,” which went viral in 2013 and was recently adapted into the short film “Voicemails to My Future Self Vol. 1.” The poem itself centers around a conversation between Johnson and his four-year-old nephew while Johnson grapples with his nephew’s already internalized fear of being Black in America and dealing with police brutality.
Although the African American Poetry Series has officially come to a close, BSU is looking forward to their 5th annual Black Excellence showcase, happening on Feb. 22.