Poetic Awakenings

Phillis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde, Lucille Clifton… It was when I met you through your poetry, that found out… words can lift off the page… and me. My heart. history. spirit. consciousness… -Revelation! As an African-American woman, poetry is integral to how see, understand, make meaning of world. first teacher, my mother, taught me about world her/our history poetry. By extension, greatest teachers, scholars whom often turn, are artists. Incorporating poetic reflexivity into research engages a Black epistemology challenges rigid notion(s) what (and who) constitutes academic/scholarly writing. In this essay, argue – which use expansively here - allows qualitative researchers reveal, distill, illuminate their thoughts findings. MAP project (www.thebmp.org) designed as online historic archive black aesthetics healing, resistance, liberatory practice sits at core fills soul work. essay will draw from archive, assemblage, offerings participants.