Interview with James Morehead of Poets for Harris
Between Shelley’s “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” and Auden’s “poetry makes nothing happen” (not to mention the many dissertations about this topic), what it means to be a part of a community of artists continues to evolve. How do we use our voices, individually and as a community, to engage in democracy? Anacapa Review‘s David Starkey posed a few questions to James Morehead, co-founder of Poets for Harris.
What is Poets for Harris and how did it come about?
A few hours after President Biden announced he would not be seeking re-election and that Vice President Kamala Harris was his preferred candidate, Win With Black Women (led by founder Jotaka Eaddy) kicked off an organic tsunami of volunteer organizations with a historic 44,000-strong Zoom call. Groups including Win With Black Men, White Women: Answer The Call!, White Dudes for Harris, Comics for Kamala, Cat Ladies for Kamala, and many more soon followed.
Like many of these grassroots organizations, Poets for Harris started from nothing more than an idea and the determination to do something. When I attended a San Francisco open mic hosted by poet Liz Cahill later that week, we both had the same question: “Where are the poets?” And Poets for Harris was born.
Liz and I started planning a poetry livestream event completely from scratch. Within days we had a critical mass of poets lined up, a website, social channels, and branding. It was an extraordinary scramble inspired by so many groups led by people with day jobs (like us.)
Fast forward to Sunday, September 15, the 61st anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and an extraordinary lineup of fifty poets took to a virtual mic for a nearly four-hour livestream event, viewed (as of this writing) over five thousand times. During the livestream, listeners contributed more than $10,000, and that number continues to grow.
Later that week, we were in the audience of Unite for America, an Oprah-headlined event featuring VP Kamala Harris, representing Poets for Harris. Since the the original Zoom event, even more poets have participated online by contributing videos, which have been viewed thousands of times on social media.
You have one foot in the world of poetry and another in the world of tech. How has the latter helped you to co-organize (with Liz Cahill) Poets for Harris?
Having a technical background has been invaluable in the nuts & bolts of domain names, website setup, social media accounts, and running a livestream event with fifty poets participating and thousands viewing. The challenge, as it was for many of the other grassroots organizations, was getting everything done after hours and on weekends. Most valuable, however, was not my technical background but being a member of the poetry community, and being able to connect with each of the participating poets on a personal level.
Ultimately, Poets for Harris is arguing for the power of community voices, and specifically the voices of poets, to make a difference in the world of politics. Can you talk about how you see that work being accomplished outside of California, where we both live, especially in the “battleground states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin?
Poets that participated in the livestream event, and poets who contributed poems for our web and social platforms, represent states from across the country – north, south, east, and west – and in all of the battleground states. Poets for Harris, through the participating poets, is a diverse representation of the United States, and each poet brings with them a network in their community. This is not a coincidence. We were determined to build a collective of poets that represents the United States, so that the work we are doing has the broadest reach, and we’re thrilled by what has been accomplished in such a short period of time.
Poets for Harris: A Poetry Anthology inspired by the Poets for Harris event and with a foreword by Jotaka Eaddy, is now available. Net proceeds benefit VoteRiders, a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote.
James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, California, author of three collections of poetry, and host of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning animated short and “gallery” was set to music (baritone and piano). His poems have appeared in multiple publications.
David Starkey is the founding editor and publisher of Gunpowder Press, as well as being the host of The Creative Community, which spotlights artists, writers, and creators.
