2025 Poetry Coalition Programming: Poetry & Shelter
Split This Rock is proud to be a member of The Poetry Coalition, a national alliance of nearly 30 independent poetry organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. The Poetry Coalition's 2025 slate of programs in the spring and summer reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation, and is made possible in part by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation. Follow along on social media at #PoetryCoalition.
The Youth Activist Poetry Anthology Project
Image Description: Alexa Patrick from Shout Mouse Press stands in front of a bright blue wall and speaks to a room full of young poets. On the rectangular table there are colorful pieces of paper, notebooks, snacks, beverages, and personal belongings.
"I noticed when I would see things happen in the world that made me feel powerless, I could get a little bit of my power back if I wrote a poem."
–from a participant in the Youth Activist Poetry Anthology Project
Split This Rock’s Youth Activist Poetry Anthology was hosted in partnership with Shout Mouse Press July-August in 2025.
For six weeks, 20 young poets from the Washington, DC area gathered for political education and poetry workshops, deepening their understanding and analysis of the issues that are important to them.
Youth were guided through poetry-writing and revision workshops led by Split This Rock's talented team of teaching artists: Kenny Carroll, Brandon Douglas, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, and Lauren May.
Workshops and lectures with teaching artists covered topics such as:
- Solidarity & Belonging with Kenny Carroll
- Resistance, Resilience, & Survival with Brandon Douglas
- Gentrification & Belonging with Lauren May
- Claiming Your Full Self with Dwayne Lawson-Brown
- Mass Incarceration & the War on Drugs with Kenny Carroll
- Social Identity, Performance, & Perception with Brandon Douglas
- Reclaiming Attention from the Distraction of Racism with Lauren May
- Joy as Revolution with Dwayne Lawson-Brown
Guest speakers Clint Smith, Walela Nehanda, Yesika Salgado, Christine Platt, and Mohammed El-Kurd spoke to youth participants about what led to their own activism and taught about a broad and rich range of topics: the role of youth in social justice movements throughout history, Disability Justice, LGBTQ rights, immigration, body image, racism and the Movement for Black Lives, Palestinian liberation, and solidarity.
In this time of profound political upheaval, creating spaces for youth to gather safely, build community, and explore their creativity as a means of building political power is more important than ever. Together is how we navigate tumultuous times, and core to Split This Rock’s work is the understanding that when community gathers together around the art of poetry, we create shelter that welcomes us all.
In Fall 2026, Shout Mouse Press will publish an anthology of the youth activists' work—stay tuned for more information as the publication date gets closer.
Join us in celebrating our youth, who have always been at the forefront of movements for social change!
To learn more, visit the Youth Activist Poetry Anthology Project web page.
This project is part of the Poetry Coalition's 2025 summer programming, inspired by the theme Poetry & Shelter.
Poem of the Week Features Poetry & Shelter Poetry Playlist
Image Description: Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week Series logo appears at the top of the graphic. With the bold text underneath, it reads “Split This Rock Poem of the Week Presents A Poetry Playlist.” Below, a black rectangle with rounded corners and a red shadow contains bold white text with the playlist’s title “Poetry & Shelter” with red rewind, play, and fast forward icons. Behind the rectangle, there are thin concentric geometric lines which peek out at the top and bottom. A URL to Split This Rock’s website is in the lower right-hand corner: splitthisrock.org.
“The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems,
carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”
– Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury
On August 1st, Split This Rock offered our community a Poetry & Shelter Playlist as part of this year’s Poetry Coalition themed programming. Split This Rock’s work is driven by the belief that poetry is a tool with which we can transform ourselves, inspire our communities, and envision a better world. Poetry offers us shelter by creating a place where we can meet ourselves and our kindred, name our way forward, and gather momentum toward collective liberation.
These 12 poems curated from The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database all explore the power of our imaginations to hold one another in tenderness, care, and generosity. From declaring solidarity that spans across oceans to softening the individual body to take in more joy, each poem is a site of connection, a place to find the hands that will gladly feed us, and a space to practice existing in the way a world free from oppression calls us to be. We hope this offering feels supportive to each of you in the practice of welcoming yourselves and beloveds into the shelter of coming together and expanding our collective horizons of possibility.
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“We find your hands and keep our place with you.”
– "For Gaza" by Noʻu Revilla
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“Let earth rejoin sky. Return and become more.”
– "IN ANOTHER LIFE LINK IS A POET" by Summer Farah
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“I’m rebuilt, mosaicked by their singing & tenderness & rage.”
– "Winter Solstice" by Jonny Teklit -
“all of what was written on
them. the past of the past. the words that
meant difference.”
– "milk river" by Taylor Alyson Lewis
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“This is for the possibility that guides us
and for the possibilities still waiting to sing
and spread their wings inside us”
– "from Say Yes" by Andrea Gibson -
“and we are always leaving but we are alive,
we are alive, we are alive, we are alive”
– "Diasporican Rechristening" by Malcolm Friend
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“I’ve had this face,
flood of love and relief, eyes closed to
better feel everything, store up joy.”
– "Sexualwissenschaft" by Miller Oberman -
“Soft numb resilience, wing me a story.”
– "Cedar Waxwing, Pyracantha II" by Lehua M. Taitano
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“He lets me hold them
I cannot remember the last time we held hands”
– "Cutting my dad’s fingernails" by Adrian Gaston Garcia -
“We are possible. The sky is full of broken windows and so is the dream.”
– "What the Fish Say / Over There" by A.D. Lauren-Abunassar
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“I asked to
keep the stars unfinished.”
– "Before going to the Barbershop" by Gabriel Ramirez -
“we could be another’s blessing
with our brief and epic lives”
– "spell for reclaiming the moment" by adrienne maree brown
This poetry playlist is part of the Poetry Coalition's 2025 summer programming, inspired by the theme Poetry & Shelter.