This year on September 9 in Durham marks the sixth annual Poetic Justice event! At Poetic Justice, artists share their spoken word and poetry to bring the voices of the incarcerated to people in the community.
Long-time collaborator Hausson Byrd will return this year to curate the event. Hausson is a spoken word poet, author, and organizer residing in Raleigh. He graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a B.A. in Multimedia Journalism.
When not performing poetry, hosting events, or facilitating workshops, he spends his time honing his artistry and building community within NC and across the country. In 2021, his original poem brought down the house:
We weren’t free in 1863 when Abe Lincoln emancipated Southern slaves, not to save them, but to break a confederacy built from spines ripped from Black backs and covered in blood whipped from Black backs, a heritage of hate kept alive on belt buckles and truck bumpers and state capital flag poles by assholes drowning in their own ignorance. We weren’t free in 1865 when the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery except in prison and more than 200 companies use the slave labor. . . .