Split This Rock Announces 2021 Pushcart Prize Nominations
.png)
In a year when defiantly sharing the critically important truths on our lives, our love, and our resilience has been vital, Split This Rock is delighted to announce its six nominations for the 46th Pushcart Prize. Please join us in celebrating these fierce poets and their incredible words. To access the full poems, visit the 2021 Pushcart Prize special collection in The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database or click the links on the poem titles below.
"A Water Poem for Remembering" by Kimberly Blaeser
A leader's slight of voice a disgrace--
we've been magicked before into war.
"Poem Resisting Arrest" by Kyle Dargan
Content Notice: focus on police violence & anti-Black racism
Where is the daylight (this poem asks and is
thus crushed) between existence and resistance,
between the now-bloodied page and the poem?
"In Memory of Kamau Braithwaite" by Safia Elhillo
i learned music as the bright flesh of the poem
i learned percussion as its pith i learned to listen
to my people speak
"chewbacca was the blackest part of The Force Awakens" by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson
Chewbacca was the blackest part of The Force Awakens. Always moaning & never understood. Always hunted & never going home.
"Bill Pay" by Janice Lobo Sapigao
Content Notice: mortality, grief
can god let the bills pay themselves for now
how many rosaries will equal the rent when will we know
if we paid enough in prayers
"i grew up with god in my mouth" by Mejdulene B. Shomali
i grew up with god in my mouth
kept the name between gum & tooth
rolled it around like hard candy
______
Image Description: The above image is Split This Rock's 2021 Pushcart Prize Nominations announcement which includes the Split This Rock logo and collaged photos of the nominees in two columns with these words between them: Split This Rock, 2021 Pushcart Prize Nominations, and splitthisrock.org. From top to bottom, the left column includes photos of Kyle Dargan, Kimberly Blaeser, and Janice Lobo Sapigao. From top to bottom, the right column includes photos of Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Mejdulene B. Shomali, and Safia Elhillo.
Photo Credits: Photo of Kyle Dargan by Marlene Hawthrone. Photo of Kimberly Blaeser by John Fisher. Photo of Cyrée Jarelle Johnson by J.D. Stokely. Photo of Safia Elhillo by Aris Theotokatos. All photos used with permission.