A poem by Gwendolyn Brooks came to me. “The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock.” I jolted in my seat at a possible connection. Brooks’s poem was written in response to the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. In the poem, the Defender sends a reporter to Little Rock to find out what on earth was wrong with the folks of Little Rock and how they could be so abusive and terrible to young students because of their skin color.

A review of The Natural Order of Things (Graywolf 2025) by Donika Kelly.

THR Poetry Editor Tyra Douyon reports on Chioma Urama’s epic collection in this poetic and historical exploration of dispossession and kinship—“because nothing, like the memory of water, is ever lost.”

Make it stand out. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.