Preface by Tracy K. Smith --
Patricia Smith, Salutation in search of --
Randall Kenan, Learning from the ghosts of the Civil War --
Edwidge Danticat, Mourning --
Su Hwang, Why the rebellion had to begin here --
Michael Kleber-Diggs, On the complex flavors of Black joy --
Amaud Jamul Johnson, Letter from the fault lines of Midwestern racism --
Layli Long Soldier, I cannot stop: a response to the murder of George Floyd --
Sofian Merabet, Be safe out there (and other American delusions, rhetorical and otherwise) --
Nyle Fort, I hated that I had to see your face through plexiglass --
Daniel Pena, Let these protests bring light to America --
Claudia Castro Luna, Letter from a Seattle protest --
Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Finding justice in the streets --
Indigo Moor, A riotous anodyne --
Tracy K. Smith, A letter to Black America --
Joshua Bennett, Where is Black life lived? --
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, On the endless mourning of the present --
Ali Black, On protest, laughter, and finding breath --
Gregory Pardlo, Letter to Juneteenth --
Major Jackson, Letter from Burlington --
James Noel, Black prayer --
Dawn Lundy Martin, Sense --
Indrissa Simmonds-Nastili, Black motherhood in sleepless times --
Cynthia Tucker, Letter to a mother who survived and thrived --
Jasmon Drain, "Maybe" (letter to a daughter wo will wear two masks) --
Camille T. Dungy, This'll hurt me more --
Ross Gay, Have I ever told you all the courts I've loved --
Samiya Bashir, Letter from exile: finding home in a pandemic --
Hector Tobar, A generational uprising --
Oscar Villalon, When the shadow is looming --
Manuel Munoz, From plagues to protests to wildfires --
Craig Santos Perez, Postcards from a quarantined paradise --
Julia Alvarez, Three liberties: past, present, yet to come --
Nikky Finney, Letter to John Robert Lewis --
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Kamala Harris, mass incarceration, and me --
Lilly Wachowski, Rufus fascism, at the ballot box and in the street --
Monica Youn, Why I'm getting out of the boiler room this election --
Keenga-Yamahtta Taylor, Voting Trump out is not enough --
Francisco Goldman, The fall of Trump: on presidents, dictators, and life after a regime --
Sasha LaPointe, Thunder song --
Kirsten West Savali, On motherhood and ancestral resistance.