Abstract
Gandy Dancer’s mission has always been about connection. As the literary journal of the SUNY system, we feature art and writing from all over the state, from Fredonia to Plattsburgh, from Suffolk County Community College to Brockport. Our goal is to bring together readers and writers and artists. For a special section in this issue, we reach farther, beyond the state borders, even.
We are delighted to bring you six poems by young writers, students at Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, DC. In their language arts class with teacher Donna Lewis Johnson, herself a writer, these students wrote the following “found” poems; that is, they composed poems drawing language from a newspaper article reporting a recent shooting.
We encountered these poems and Lewis Johnson’s article about them in The Washington Post (“D.C. students’ ‘found’ poems reveal their weariness with gun violence, January 31, 2023.”)
While they are not SUNY students, we want to publish their work and honor it, as it says so much about gun violence, an epidemic that threatens us all. These poems don’t look away from what is difficult or upsetting, and they don’t let us look away, either. With understatement and grace, they demand accountability, action, response. The poems in this section are "Gunfire," "Pow Pow," "A Wounded Community," "Bloody Violence," "End Gun Violence," and "No Violence Needed."
Recommended Citation
Ingram, Matthew; Canty, Zahyr; Edwards, Kristian; Boothe, Alayah; Cosby, Antywon; and Simon, Gregory
(2023)
"Feature: Found Poems,"
Gandy Dancer Archives: Vol. 11:
Iss.
2, Article 19.
Available at:
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/gandy-dancer/vol11/iss2/19