In difficult and distressing times, poetry remains a salve. Poets can distill and name our experience in ways that are powerful and transformative. Former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith is one important, pivotal example of this. In the words of Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, who appointed Smith to the influential role—which Smith served in from 2017 to 2019—Smith is “a poet of searching,” whose work “travels the world and takes on its voices; brings history and memory to life.”
Smith also views her work and the art of poetry as a space of endless possibilities for dreaming the future to life. “Art is a tool that in my mind is always pointed toward the future,” Smith said in a conversation with Oprah Daily about how she views the role of poetry in building the future. “I think art is always interested in what is next, what might be next. The flourishing of art and creativity shows us that we can move in a different direction. Futurity is something we are constantly contemplating.”
As the country’s poetic ambassador, Smith created a more inclusive future: She made it her mission to expand poetry from its traditional literary and scholarly confines with visits, readings, and conversations she brought to rural communities, prisons and jails, and beyond. In her second year, she went even further, creating a series called American Conversations, meant to send the message that poetry could be a vehicle for Americans to be in conversation instead of talking past one another. The 2018 anthology she edited, American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, elaborated on her vision by featuring poets from each state. Her collection Life on Mars won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her first career-spanning collection with new and selected poems, Such Color, was published in 2021.
Oprah Daily talked to Smith about what’s next for us as we move through upheaval and transform it to joy so that we might survive and flourish, how she views her work as a part of positioning poetry for the future of America, and how her work is opening doors that were previously closed.
This story was created as part of Future Rising in partnership with Lexus. Future Rising is a series running across Hearst Magazines to celebrate the profound impact of Black culture on American life, and to spotlight some of the most dynamic voices of our time. Go to oprahdaily.com/futurerising for the complete portfolio.
