Poem by Chavonn Williams Shen
After Danez Smith’s “alternate names for black boys”
- Words drawn in crayon on cell walls from the mentally unhinged
- The sound of plucked butterfly wings
- Intricate firewood
- Instructions on how to suffocate the sacred
- What it feels like to wake up
- Reflections in the eyes of others
- The need to check your heartbeat
- Walks barefoot on bullet shells
- Music stolen from the dead
- Grasping whispers in the dark
- Thank yous made of fists
- What it feels like to breathe
- Misremembered places carried on string
2017 Winner of the Still I Rise Grant for Black Women Writers
Chavonn Williams Shen is an educator and artist with a love of words. She was a participant in the 2016–2017 Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose through the Loft Literary Center, as well as a 2016 fellow through the Givens Foundation for African American Literature. She has participated in writing workshops like the VONA workshop for writers of color and has taught workshops for various grades, elementary through college. Outside of the classroom, she was a program coordinator for the Minneapolis Park and Rec’s city-wide poetry and spoken word program, Spoken Summer. Poetry has shown Chavonn how to use art to explore new worlds, build communities, and advocate for the marginalized. She will pursue her MFA degree in creative writing at Hamline University this fall.
