Political poetry

Working-class women poetry describes the works of the voices behind the machinery and factories of the Victorian era. Critic Megan Timney[3] argues that working-class women poets engaged with nineteenth century class politics and their simple use of diction and themes resonated with. This poetry calls for equality in the workplace, fair compensation and the improvement of working conditions. Meagan Timney examines how working-class women of the Victorian era in Britain were deemed unimportant or unrecognized in comparison to working-class males. As a result of this injustice, many female poets from this time period did not receive the proper recognition they deserved. Many women authors did not receive credit for their works since it was hard to trace an author to her work during this time. Only recently has their history been discovered. Timney[3] argues that working-class women poets engaged with nineteenth century class politics and their simple use of diction and themes resonated with Chartist poetry. In works written by Mary Hutton, she incorporated issues of the day during the 1830s and 1840s by politicizing both gender and class while carefully walking a line of legislative changes and political revolution. Other than Mary Hutton, there are other examples of poetry by other working-class women during the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Besides Hutton, there were also others who had their own stance on the treatment of the working-class. These women poets were helpful because of their influencing ideas for revolutionary change and the commitment to justice. Hutton, a Chartist Poet, focused on political subjects and observed the workings of justice and how women of the working class were treated. Working-class women often were denied access to the reforms of the Chartist movement thus denied the right to fight for their worker's rights. Current research of Mary Hutton has opened doors for further research on female working poets like Hutton to be credited as equal to other working class writers. The importance of this poetry highlights the specifics of the working class during this time period, and how work matters to society.

American political poetry arguably dates back to the turn of the century.[6] One of the first political poems was written in 1930 by Uri Zvi Grinberg, a poem titled "I Hate the Peace of Those who Surrender". "The East of the Jordan", by Zeev Jabotinsky, is another poem; a more modern poetry book is Democracy in Contemporary U.S. Women's Poetry written by Nicky Marsh;[7] political poetry originates from all around the world, however, it is viewed with distinctive variations. Through the reader's point of view, political poetry conveys and expresses political aspects which then shapes how it is read, "Poetry might be perceived as political by its audience even if the writer did not mean to convey a political message or ideas, values, praise, or criticism."[6] Poetry uses emotion to convey messages that poets to get across, incorporating the use of culture and politics. Politics, however, has always been heavily involved with complex issues that cannot be solved with emotion alone. John F Kennedy, the 35th president, linked poetry to politics when he said: "If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a better place in which to live." The effectiveness of poetry draws from reader experience and emotion; politics, however, is mostly used to convince their audience. Political poetry incorporates these two ideas together, creating something that both influences the audience and convinces them as to the main idea of the poem. William Butler Yeats, an Irish senator in 1922, believed that "rhetoric stems from our confrontations with others while poetry stems from our confrontations with ourselves".

In "Surviving the War by Singing the Blues: The Contemporary Ethos of American Indian Poetry", author and critic Rebecca Tsosie argues that the creation of American Indian political poetry in the 1890s was strongly inspired by the struggles and oppression American Indians faced. American Indian Political Poetry consists of poetry and music written by politically motivated American Indians in order to raise awareness and call for change. Many poets, such as John Trudell and Wendy Rose, represent the hardships that American Indians face in their poetry to "ignite and create a unified, spiritual flame".[8] In the mid to late 1980s, influential poets and musicians, such as John Trudell and Jesse Ed Davis, created musical poems about American Indian hardships. Although American Indian political poetry originated in the 1890s, "numerous Indian poets such as Wendy Rose, Paula Gunn Allen, Leslie Silko, Philip Minthorn, and Maurice Kelly"[8] continue to write political poetry in the present day. The messages each artist sends are relayed through the use of poetry and traditional music. The poetry and music written by many Indian poets expose the tragic events American Indians experienced, such as the fight to obtain clean water[9] (issues that are not often talked about). Tsosie asserts "contemporary Indian poets... utilize the strength of their traditional past to address the critical issues of present and future".[8] Many of the struggles faced by American Indians, such as being generalized as being one group rather than being acknowledged as distinct groups, are caused by Western stereotypes. American Indian poets present ideas to deal and cope with the unjust ways they were treated. Tsosie argues "Ward Churchill... notes a central continuity between the 19th century Ghost Dance vision and the contemporary politically motivated poetry of many American Indians".[8] The purpose of the Ghost Dance was for American Indians to be able to challenge the injustices and repression that occurred during this time.

Poetry has been used to criticize events in America, calling the government into question or being used to show the viewpoint of citizens. One example of this is the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster which devastated the Gulf Coast region and many people lost their homes and families to both the storm and subsequent man-made disaster. In, "Hip Hop as Disaster Recovery in the Katrina Diaspora", Zenia Kish[10] demonstrates the political role that hip hop played in an effort to portray a positive view of the residents that were criticized and labeled as "refugees" during hurricane Katrina. The music created after Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how influential it can be by "... giving a voice to 'those who are losing their own.'" The music that was created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a way to express the injustices of treatment and media representation. Many African-Americans who had just lost their homes and loved ones were being labeled as refugees instead of disenfranchised victims who lost their housing. This hip hop music movement is similar to the birth of the blues music genre. These types of music were created in response to a natural disaster and to represent how African-American and other minority cultures had been affected. This also gave hip hop artists motivation to criticize the mainstream media as well as the U.S. government and FEMA for the lack of support for the victims.  By using musical and lyrical forms of poetry, artists brought awareness to survivors that were mislabeled as refugees. Local artists Mia X and 5th Ward Weebie both used the platform of hip hop to express the difficulties their community was experiencing in the aftermath of Katrina. More popular and mainstream artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye West used this platform to speak out against the prejudice against those affected by hurricane Katrina. A notable example of criticism comes from an off-the-script speech during A Concert for Hurricane Relief where Kanye West candidly exposed double standards in the media when it came to the ethnicity of looters. This was similar to Richard Macwilliam's political poem, "A Time of Change", where he pinpoints poverty and alienation as possible causes of the September 11 terrorist attacks.[11]

Chicano political poetry thematizes Mexican-American empowerment and addresses inequality. According to critic Adolfo Ortega: "Chicano poetry [was] an aesthetic medium of considerable impact on the [Chicano] Movement...[it] helped give vision to the Movement; its power loomed early."[12] In mid-century America, many Mexican-Americans were disenfranchised and didn't have the same rights as white Americans. In 1965, Corky Gonzalez (a Chicano poet) assembled a Chicano youth conference attended by many social activists and poets.[12] This gathering led many young and creative artists to organize to advocate for increased social, political, and economic rights. The Chicano movement used poetry to address these issues to Americans inside and outside the mainstream socio-political establishment. Adolfo Ortega, a famous Mexican-American political poet, in 1965 addressed the Chicano Movement, saying: "The Chicano Movement gave birth to a cultural consciousness that resulted in an explosion of artistic talent, poets, novelists, painters, sculptors, and musicians set out to recapture the Chicano world-vision."[12] One example of Chicano political poetry is the poet Alurista, who wrote in bilingual verse to call for equality:

Asian American writers must often confront racial bias that seeks to diminish their work. Dorothy Wang[13] argues that there is a bias against Asian-American writers because of their race. Wang states that the: "marginalization of Asian American poetry is, arguably, a synecdochic reflection of the larger state of poetry in a capitalist society – poets tend not to write best sellers and poetry has no use-value – yet the erasure of poetry within literary purviews bespeaks a more profound and troubling fundamental misapprehension within American literary (and racial) ideologies: the (mis)reading, even if mostly unconscious, of the category of 'Asian American poetry' as oxymoronic, a contradiction in terms, one that pits the sociopolitical (read: racial) against the aesthetic (the formal, the "purely" literary) in a false binary."[13] The lack of attention to race in poetry can cause Asian American's contribution to the poetic world to become almost nonexistent. Asian American literature has been taught in English departments across the country only for the past few decades and much of it has third-class status. Many American minority poets were not recognized for their poetry. For example, the 2008 PMLA "The New Lyric Studies" and in the"Poetry and Society" were two awards where minority poets were not acknowledged for their poems.

The multicultural Asian American movement in the 1960s and 1979s strived to include Asian American poets and artists into the mainstream media. Asian American poets wrote embracing the concept of"yellow power" similar to the"black power" movement, that would help them rise to be a larger part of the American poetic scene.[13] They searched to express themselves on a larger media base in order to erase any racial profiling that comes along with their appearance. They wanted to be seen as normal American writers, not ethnic writers.

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (b. 1947) is an Asian American political poet who came to the United States of America from Beijing at the age of one. Berssenbrugge identifies herself as a racially minoritized biracial poet in the language of her poetry. She wants to be seen as an American poet, where her racial profile is overlooked so that when people read her work, she is seen as an American writer and not an Asian one, a political choice.

In "Fog", Berssenbrugge relatives are crossing a long bridge because of how long it will take for them to finally be accepted into society as normal Americans. The following two lines are from "Fog": "It has no shape or color that is stable, as if I had fallen asleep and a long bridge / appeared, where my relatives are like companions crossing a bridge." Her critique of racial identity tends to be indirect; however, as Berssenbrugge mentioned in a 2006 interview, "I try to expand a field by dissolving polarities or dissolving the borders from one thing and another." Therefore, her presentation of race and racial identity are "not marginal to her poetry but central to her project of desiring to dematerialize whatever...keeps states of being and of nature separate." She uses her understanding of the world to combine two, unlike entities into a much larger picture.

Another example of politics in Asian American poetry is in "Chinaman, Laundryman" (1928) written by H. T. Tsiang (1899–1971):

Tsiang recognizes the inequalities faced by Asian Americans as they try to root themselves in America. Unlike Berssenbrugge, Tsiang directly mentions his skin color in his poem, and he works for race equality improvements for people of color.

While some Asian American poets tried to hide their race, others did not. Wang concludes that "those who were later to be called 'Asian American' were, from the very beginning, both political (in the broadest sense) and formal, aesthetically self-conscious – never delinked from the social and historical contexts of their making and of the poets' formations".

African Americans and South Asian Americans share a social connection in the United States: they both have diasporic roots.[14] Sharma argues that South Asians in the United States utilize hip hop lyrics to display solidarity with African Americans, sharing the status of racialized minorities in the United States. South Asian hip hop artists also advance a social justice agenda that everyone could benefit from. These South Asian hip hop artists are also known as Desi artists (plural, Desis). Desi artists recognize the political potency and relevance of hip hop to promote social change: "Hip hop is a powerful lens through which to examine Asian/Black relations not only because of its enormous popularity as a global form but also because hip hop culture is explicit about race, difference, inequality, and power". In the 1980s and 1990s Desi artists were influenced by the messages in black rap music and began to write lyrics that challenged problems South Asian faced as they were adjusting to their new cities and being first and second generation South Asians in the United States. Desis artists hip hop lyrics serve to: "Blu[r] the line between art and politics... cro[ss] racial, class, and national boundaries and is an extension of the racialized political identities that they forge through hip hop".[14] D'Lo is one of the more popular South Asian American hip hop artists and is at the forefront of social change within his community. In his performance piece "Eyes Closed In America", on resistance to discrimination:

Thus, Desi artists approach hip hop as an extension of their social activists work of being political while helping to build the community they live in.

Critic Susan Somers-Willett asserts that slam poetry began between November 1984 and July 1986, in the Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago. Slam poetry is a type of "political complaint" and protest that uses identity and other forms to protest oppression.[15] Slam poets and audiences see slam poetry not only as literary or performative, but also as a political event. Somers-Willett argues that: "poems that make an empowered declaration of marginalized identity and individuality are a staple of one's slam repertoire."[15] Race, gender and sexuality are all factors that affect poets and the message of their work. Slam poets work is an embodiment of their identity and it breaks the homogeneity of traditional poetry structure. But, a poet is not bound to a certain identity based on their culture, sexuality, or race, although many do use identity. Slam poetry's main goals is to express authenticity of identity to its audience. By this, poets will create a genuine and intimate connection with the audience through their identity based experience. Slam poetry revolutionizes of traditional forms of poetry. Slam poetry ranges from comical poems to extremely serious work about racism, sexual identity, violence, and personal struggles with life; slam poetry is the outlet a lot of writers use to express themselves. Many poets write from a "I" stand point where in their poems they describe events that has happened to them personally whether it be a positive or negative experience. "Inhabiting the space where the "I" of the page translates quite seamlessly to the "I" of the stage, the author comes to embody declarations about personal experience in performance." An example of authors using "I" would be Ragan Fox, who wrote To be Straight: "I want to be straight because sometimes being gay is just too difficult." Authors try to reach out to their audience by relating what they say in their poems to how the audience might have felt but never had the courage to say. There are also different ways to perform poetry. Patricia Smith, an African American poet, performed a poem in the voice of a white male skinhead. This shows the opposing party explaining to the audience the hatred and what is going through their minds. Slam poetry can come in various forms, but is a tool that can get a poetic argument across to those who listen.

"The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry" by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett analyzes different poets and their work. Using poems such as "Thick" by Sonya Renee, "Tongue Tactics" by Mayda Del Valle, and "To Be Straight" by Regan Fox, Somers breaks down how each poet's work is an embodiment of themselves and their individual emotions and struggles. Somers also claims that, "poems that make an empowered declaration of marginalized identity and individuality are a staple of one's slam repertoire".[15] A poet's work most often aims for authenticity and that in the work itself, the "I" is a reference to the poet. Slam poetry as a literary form and performance originates from Chicago at the Green Mill Jazz Club in 1986 but was first performed less popularly in 1984 around southern U.S. Regardless of its origins in the U.S. slam poetry can be found in many different parts of the world, Somers reinforces the idea that slam poetry differs for each culture, sexuality, and race; each offering a different perspective and worldview.

Karin L. Stanford argues that Tupac Shakur wrote political lyrics: "Tupac's lyrics underscore his refusal to accept economic inequality and inadequate employment opportunities. He also continues his attack on patriotic symbolism...Tupac's life and political advocacy prove that hip hop music and activism are not mutually exclusive....Tupac's political work reveals his aspiration for social change."[16] Tupac's music also focused on civil rights and oppression to minorities. For example, in his lyrics he criticizes Americans who "pledge allegiance to a flag that neglects us Honor a man that who refuses to respect us Emancipation, Proclamation, Please! Ni*ga just said that to save the nation These are lies and we all accepted..." This refers back to the revolutionary war when colonists promised African slaves that they would abolish slavery if they aided them in the war. This also shows the struggles that African Americans had to endure throughout history to get to where they are today.

According to Stanford:[16] "Although Tupac's discourse was not framed in traditional revolutionary nationalist rhetoric, his political associations, use of language, public statements, and lyrical content suggest that he identified with Revolutionary Nationalism." In the poem "How Can We Be Free",  Shakur's lyrics give readers a sense of racism and makes a call for change.