King’s life celebrated with poetry

Poet jessica Care Moore demanded the audience’s attention with her rhythmic voice, passion and strong poetic delivery.

In commemoration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library brought in Moore to recite her poetry that addresses many of the same issues MLK spoke about in the 1960s. Moore is an international poet, an author of three books and the CEO of her own publishing company, Moore Black Press.


Moore read from her books: “The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth,” “The Alphabet Verses: The Ghetto,” and “God Is Not an American.” She said she was not afraid to make people uncomfortable with her poetry about race, class, education, poverty and nationalism.

For senior Jessica Garbert, Moore’s sense of truth was not offensive, but rather thought-provoking.

“If you don’t scream at people, they’re not going to pay attention,” Garbert said.

“Princess,” a poem about a Bronx woman who jumped off her project’s roof with her three children, was inspired by Moore’s contempt of how the media portrayed this woman. After reading that poem, the audience’s applause pierced through the room.
Between poems, Moore interacted with the audience in dialogue about taboo issues. Audience members nodded their heads in agreement after she made bold statements on issues often times brushed under the rug.

“A lot of my poetry is about my race, and I have no problem talking about race,” Moore said. “People don’t like to talk about race because it makes them uncomfortable.”

But even as a renowned poet that has traveled to Germany, France and South America, less than 50 people showed up to hear her words. Garbert said this was a pretty average turnout for poetry. Senior Katie Lostroscio said she wished the event would have been advertised on IU’s homepage and not just under the MLK celebration events.

“I had to look for this (event),” Lostroscio said. “It’s so sad.”

Moore used the small crowd to her advantage, prompting them to join her in reciting lines. Before reading “Love is Not the Enemy,” she asked how many people were in love. No one was. Everyone laughed. She then had the audience repeat “love is not the enemy” two times.

Her last poem, titled “American Villain,” was dedicated to Michael Vick. Moore prefaced her poem by explaining she loved animals and was a vegetarian, but she loved black men more.

Students and faculty boisterously applauded, exclaimed “Yeah, say it again” and “You’re right,” and nodded their heads to her performance.

Garbert said Moore was robust and she really liked her reflection. Both Garbert and Lostroscio said Moore was a great writer with a unique style, and they would recommend her poetry to anybody.

“I loved how fabulously real it was,” said Lostroscio.