From left, Makalani Bandele, Frank X Walker, Ron Davis, Amy Alvarez, Lisa Kwong, Zakia Holland, Crystal Wilkinson and Jeremy Paden. Photo by Patrick Mitchell.
Frank X Walker remembers the breathtaking and heady days of the writing group that became the Affrilachian Poets in the early 1990s. Centered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center at the University of Kentucky, the young writers were in love with language and fired up with its profound power to speak their experiences.
As is often true in the young, they shared a sense of immediacy. When one of them had something that needed to be shared RIGHT NOW, he or she would walk through the center and pronounce it a “Poetry Moment.” That was their cue. The others knew to get to the elevator quickly, before the reader had enough listeners and would shut off the power prior to privately sharing a new work.
Those moments bolstered the unifying spirit of the group. “There is something about sharing the same breath in the same space that enlivens the poetry process,” said Walker, the 2013-2014 Kentucky Poet Laureate.
Those elevator days were more than 30 years ago. Back then, the community coalesced through weekly writing workshops and public readings. They intentionally furthered each other’s writing and publishing careers.
Distance and age have eliminated the immediate nature of their sharing, but the Affrilachian Poets remain relevant as a family of writers spurring each other on to their finest work and as important witnesses to the diversity of the region.
Outward
The name “Affrilachian” emerged early in the group’s history from one of Walker’s poems, written as a creative response to a dictionary definition that perpetuated the myth of an all-white Appalachia. From the beginning, the Affrilachian Poets were grounded in inclusivity and intentionally multicultural. The founders include people with African, Asian, Puerto Rican and Lebanese ancestry. As young writers of color, the group helped members embrace their identity and gave them a place to belong.
“The name is based on a definition that said everybody in the room was left out,” Walker said. “ ‘Affrilachian’ troubles the mainstream definitions of the region.”
The power of the name is something they freely share with others who embrace it and its variations (Cubalachian, Asialachian, etc.) as a key to their own search for home in the region and a way to encapsulate their own cultural experience.
The perspective of the Affrilachian Poets has enriched the poetic landscape of Kentucky. But it is bigger than that. As Shauna M. Morgan wrote in the foreword to the group’s anthology Black Bone in 2018, “This art … moves beyond the region … to forge a new world, to stand up for justice, and to call truth’s name in ink and song.”
These poets write about this underlying current of justice and many similar themes: family, history, identity and place.
From their diversity comes unique voices and a range of poetic genres. One member writes experimental abstract poetry about jazz; another writes straightforward narratives imagined as historical personas.
Jeremy Paden grew up predominantly in Latin America and is working on a bilingual Spanish/English ABC bestiary. The short lyrical poems about endangered animals that migrate between Central and North America will become a children’s book with illustrations. It follows his 2020 illustrated book of poems, Under the Ocelot Sun, which is about Latin American refugees.
Ricardo Nazario y Colon is writing a more scholarly text about the history of folks of Latin American descent in Appalachia. Though often unacknowledged, they have lived in the region since the early 1900s. It will do the important work of broadening the conversation about who is Appalachian. A founding Affrilachian Poet, he explained, “Poets are meant to be critical of the time and place they live. It is our responsibility to question the manner under which we are living to bring about dialogue and a humanistic point of view.”
Inward
Writing can be a solitary pursuit. Groups like the Affrilachian Poets give members whatever they need, for wherever they are. Walker said that the Affrilachian Poets give him support, encouragement and motivation. “We really lean on each other,” he said. “I always tell others to find a writing community or start one. It is paramount to not create art in isolation to sustain the passion and work.”
Giving feedback to one another is a cornerstone of their interactions. “Knowing I am supported by a group who comes at questions of ethics and politics in a similar way helps me through the more lonely times,” said Paden. “I can send drafts to fellow poets who will give it a deep, honest read.”
Only one member—Nikky Finney, a 2021 inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame—had published a book when the group began. She started a tradition of helping others on the journey to publication. Members recommend, review and promote each other’s work with a sense that one person’s publication is everyone’s success.
Through the years, the founders have formed such a close-knit community that they feel like family. They join each other’s wedding celebrations and travel across states to visit. In their introduction to Black Bone, Paden and Bianca Lynne Spriggs explain their relationships: “There is so much about this family of writers and artists, activists and educators, that we cannot show you through this collection. How we smack-talk, laugh hard, turn up the music, clink mason jars, and love one another the hardest through every trial and triumph. How we mourn each other’s tragedies. Crow over one another’s successes. How somebody will have a hand outstretched to welcome you home, no matter how long you’ve been gone.”
Patrick Mitchell photo
Forward
The longevity of the group is attributable to something more than the close-knit community they have formed. Together, they have mastered a challenge for any group that wants to last beyond its original visionary members. They invite, welcome and integrate new young members into their fold.
It is not by accident. Many Affrilachian Poets are educators, and they take that role seriously. They serve young people as teachers at the Governor’s School for the Arts and celebrated their 25th anniversary with a reading to the statewide gathering of high schoolers. “Having groups read poetry in elementary and middle schools is a deeply meaningful part of what we do,” Paden said. “We help children develop a love for the written word and find their own creative voice.”
By developing mentoring relationships, the writers get a sense of who might be a good fit as an Affrilachian Poet. They welcome new members, by invitation only, about every five years. As a result, they have successfully become intergenerational. Their most recent induction was this past June at the Lyric Theater in Lexington, where they welcomed four new members.
“Our commitment to continually bringing people in brings fresh vision and new voices,” Paden said.
To their knowledge, the Affrilachian Poets are the oldest active poet collective of multicultural writers in the United States. While they have good reason to look back and celebrate this milestone, they also have good reason to look forward.
“The continuity of our vision to make poets of color visible and giving space within the group for that to happen doesn’t rely on individuals,” Nazario y Colon said. “We are replaceable and hope that, 30 years from now, there is a group that still says, ‘We are Affrilachian Poets.’”