2020 was a year of startling transformations: our sense of personal and public health, our awareness of structural racism and ongoing racial violence, our confidence in governmental authorities and programs, our notions of time and space, our ideas of freedom and security, and our relationship to each other all changed. For many, quite dramatically.

As this year of transformation was plummeting to its demise and about to transform from one thing to another, I began re-reading poems that had transformed me. And, rather randomly, on New Year's Eve, as I was thinking about what I wanted for 2021, I got the idea for this project. What if I put together a selection of poems that had, in some way, altered how I see the world?

I hope to post a video of me reading and talking about a poem every Wednesday during 2021. By the time 2022 rolls around, this page should have roughly 52 videos that are a testament to the power of poetry to heal, connect, and harness.