Moni Basu, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Michael and Linda Connelly Lecturer for Narrative Nonfiction, is the author of “Ashley Jones! Now” published in The Bitter Southerner on May 31. Basu focuses on Alabama’s first Black poet laureate and the youngest in the 91 years since the state created the honor.

According to Basu, “Her words string together damnations of discrimination and injustice, rooted not just in the long tentacles of slavery but also very much in her own experiences. Her poetry is as deeply political as it is personal, a reflection of how she sees the way forward. Jones explores the traumas of yesterday and those of today: police violence, white silence, and new problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through her words, she forges a way forward. And that involves a lot more than cutting a check for the sins of the past.”

“Poetry acts as a supportive mirror that allows Jones to look long and deep and find answers to the sometimes unanswerable — from lynchings, to George Floyd, to her own fight to stand tall, even amid recent losses,” writes Basu. “Jones fears that poetry, like classical literature or music, has become inaccessible to many ordinary Americans. She is on a mission to rectify. To give poetry a chance.”

She adds, “Jones wants to showcase poetry in Alabama. To help people see poetry everywhere, whether it’s on a popsicle stick or in the trail of a jet that has just taken off into the sky. The same Alabama sky that reigns luminous over brutality — and beauty. That Alabama sky that watches over her, always.”

Basu also served as the editor for the third print issue of The Bitter Southerner published in March 2022.

Posted: June 6, 2022
Category: College News
Tagged as: Moni Basu