The Chicago-based foundation is one of the nation’s wealthiest literary organizations, with an endowment that exceeds $250 million. The letter, posted online over the weekend, was issued by 30 poets connected with the foundation, including Ocean Vuong, Eve L. Ewing and Danez Smith. It was prompted by a brief, four-sentence statement the foundation issued on June 3, expressing “solidarity with the Black community” and declaring faith in “the strength and power of poetry to uplift in times of despair.”Almost immediately, the statement drew criticism and ridicule on social media. “As poets, we recognize a piece of writing that meets the urgency of its time with the appropriate fire when we see it — and this is not it,” the letter said. “Given the stakes, which equate to no less than genocide against Black people, the watery vagaries of this statement are, ultimately, a violence.”

Source: New York Times June 09, 2020 21:09 UTC