Cover of Sierra Leone Believes Poetry Is Essential Civic Infrastructure: Part 2

Sierra Leone Believes Poetry Is Essential Civic Infrastructure: Part 2

Sierra Leone Believes Poetry Is Essential Civic Infrastructure: Part 2

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Where do poetry and democracy intersect?In part two of our conversation with Dayton poet laureate, educator, activist, culture keeper, and Kettering Foundation Democracy and the Arts resident artist Sierra Leone, we follow the threads of memory and imagination from a gallery of story quilts in Hamilton, Ohio, to the Legacy Sites of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.Along the way, Sierra reads American Libation III: Weaving an Amendment for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, her response to Carolyn Crump's quilt Lovely One. She takes us inside The Belonging Project, where the stories of more than 100 Dayton residents are being harvested and turned into theater. And she shares a new poem born of a week with fellow Democracy Defenders led by Kimberlé Crenshaw in partnership with, a poem about how ideas persist and how thorns of memory grow from the womb of subjugation.If you've ever wondered what poetry has to do with the work of self-government, or how a life of civic leadership actually begins, this one's for you.In this episode we explore:Poetry asks. Democracy asks too. A poem doesn't go looking for answers. It leaves something behind for others to grapple with, and each generation has to decide what democracy will be.The petals that fall to the ground. Every society chooses which stories rise to the surface. Poets pick up the parts that fall and put some wind under them.Belonging becomes theater. Verbatim stories from returning citizens, bankers, fathers, teachers, and teens become a stage for the hard conversations communities need to have.Notable MentionsPeopleSierra Leone: Dayton's first Poet Laureate, playwright, educator, and Kettering Foundation artist-in-residence.Willis "Bing" Davis: Dayton artist and educator, founder of EbonNia Gallery, honored in Sierra's American Libation: Homage to an Elder (part one).Ketanji Brown Jackson: Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 2022, the first Black woman to serve on the Court.Carolyn Crump: Houston-based quilt and multimedia artist whose quilt Ketanji Brown Jackson: Lovely One inspired Sierra's poem.Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi: Quilt artist, historian, curator, NEA National Heritage Fellow, and founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network.John Coltrane: Jazz saxophonist and composer. Sierra's poem closes on "a love supreme."Angela Siner: University of Toledo faculty member in Africana Studies and Sierra's mentor, who told her, "Choose your approach."Joni Doherty: Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation. She invited Sierra to accompany her to Montgomery as a guest of the Foundation.Bryan Stevenson: Public-interest lawyer, author of Just Mercy, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.Kimberlé Crenshaw: Legal scholar who was instrumental in developing the concepts of critical race theory and "intersectionality" and co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum.Augusto Boal: Brazilian theater artist and activist, creator of the Theatre of the Oppressed.Paul Laurence Dunbar: Dayton-born poet and novelist, one of the first Black American writers to gain national renown.Lucille Clifton: National Book Award–winning poet known for spare, luminous poems of family and resilience.Terrance Hayes: National Book Award–winning poet and MacArthur Fellow, author of Watch Your Language.Jericho Brown: Pulitzer Prize–winning poet (The Tradition) and co-editor of How We Do It.Nikki Giovanni: Poet, essayist, and leading voice of the Black Arts Movement (1943–2024).Sonia Sanchez: Poet, activist, Black Arts Movement pioneer, and Philadelphia's first poet laureate.Maya Angelou: Poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.Robert Hayden: Poet and the first African American Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.Gwendolyn Brooks: The first Black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize and a lifelong chronicler of Chicago's Bronzeville.Organizations & InstitutionsCenter for the Study of Art and Community: Producer of Art is Change, building art-and-community partnerships since 1992.Charles F. Kettering Foundation: Democracy and the Arts: Foundation program exploring how the arts strengthen democratic life, and partner on the Art in Action series.Fitton Center for Creative Arts: Community arts center in Hamilton, Ohio, which organized the Soul of Black Folks: 250 Years of Creativity, Innovation and Leadership exhibition. The Fitton partnered with the Kettering Foundation to develop the Voices of Black Folks program.Women of Color Quilters Network: International network of Black quilt artists founded by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi.The Human Race Theatre Company: Dayton professional theater and one of the partners on The Belonging Project.AmeriCorps Seniors: National service program for volunteers 55 and older, among the groups heard in The Belonging Project listening sessions.University of Dayton: Imagining Community Symposium: October 2026 symposium ...
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