Joseph Green is a spoken word artist, educator, and motivational speaker

with over 15 years’ experience in youth development. He co-founded poetryN.O.W., a nonprofit providing creative writing programming and curriculum for DC-area youth and schools. While serving as Split This Rock’s Director of Youth Programs for 3 years, he transferred poetryN.O.W’s work into Split This Rock’s care. Joseph has performed, hosted, and featured throughout the United States, including at the White House, Kennedy Center, and American Society of Addiction Medicine’s annual conference. He has qualified to compete at Poetry Slam Inc.’s National Poetry Slam five times and ranked 16th at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam. In 2017, Joseph started LMSvoice to help people and socially conscious organizations discover and share the transformative power of story.

This poem is reprinted from Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week Series. Feel free to share it widely. Please include all of the information in this post, including this request and a link to the poem at Split This Rock’s website. Thanks! 

For more poems of provocation and witness, please visit The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database at www.splitthisrock.org

The Making of Busboys and Poets

A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets

We’re proud to announce A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets, the new memoir from our CEO and Founder, which reveals the vision, challenges, and triumphs behind opening Busboys and Poets. Packed with misadventures, unexpected triumphs, and insights on race, business and politics, Andy Shallal’s memoir takes us on a “How I Built … Continued

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For Langston Hughes on His 123 Birthday

Speech given on February 1, 2024 in Havana, Cuba In 1927 Langston Hughes walked into a Cuba amid an emerging community of artists, intellectuals, and radicals.  He saw a “sunrise in a new land [– a day – in his words]sic – full of brownskin surprises, and hitherto unknown contacts in a world of color.”  … Continued

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Palestine Week 2024

January 18, 2024 – January 25, 2024 In keeping with our ongoing mission of uplifting racial and cultural connections, Busboys and Poets is hosting Palestine Week (January 18 through January 25, 2024). This week-long series of events will offer a diverse range of programming featuring Palestinian food, music, dance, poetry, discussions, and other enriching events. … Continued

The Morning After

The Morning After

Its time for us to be the change we want to see in the world.

Cuba Week Deck

Busboys and Poets Cuba Week 2022

October 15, 2022 – October 22, 2022 Join us at Busboys and Poets for Cuba Week 2022 as we celebrate the food, art, and culture of Cuba! Come and experience the authentic taste of Cuba at Busboys and Poets! We’ve partnered with the Embassy of Cuba’s head chef to bring you four very special dishes … Continued

Rising Artist Frank Ocean did something important

Rising Artist Frank Ocean did something important

“We can thank Frank Ocean, not only for making a public statement that sweeps aside shadows and offers young fans another powerfully vulnerable star to admire and emulate, but for reminding us that while proudly declaring an identity can be a politically crucial gesture, often the human heart is not so sure-footed. The process of becoming and unbecoming, loving and losing, is what often makes for the most meaningful art.” – Ann Powers, NPR