Let the Poets Govern

A Declaration of Freedom

De: Camonghne Felix

In this part-memoir, part-manifesto, an acclaimed poet interprets Black radical literary traditions to reimagine freedom through refusal.

Over the past decade, Camonghne Felix has been at the center of American politics, working in strategy, communications, and as a speechwriter. Throughout it all, she has maintained her unwavering belief in language’s foundational revolutionary potential, outside of its deployment for legislative and political ends. In this groundbreaking work of nonfiction, she argues that Black radical poetic traditions model an ethical code and overcome entrenched structures of patriarchy and paternalism, inventing a new form that examines the historical and legislative, and the personal and poetic.

Felix draws on stories from her life in campaigns and the decisions she has had to make: preparing speeches for candidates, responding to harassment, recruiting staff. She recounts her moving personal history—accompanying her mother, a lawyer, to court, and her father, a participant in the Grenadian revolution of 1983, to protests—as well as her coming-of-age being schooled in a wider tradition of Black radical thinkers, from Gwendolyn Brooks to Audre Lorde.

Through rupture, rhythm, and a refusal of politics as usual, Let the Poets Govern encourages us to hold ourselves to the standards of our highest ideals and embraces our shared humanity.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Let the Poets Govern is an incisive and rigorous assessment of how people arrive within a moment and what they can make out of it—or how they can take it apart. There is incredible beauty and care in the language, and in the possible world(s) being built.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year

“A few pages into Let the Poets Govern, you will want to read this book out loud to strangers on the street via bullhorn. Several chapters in, you’ll be pricing professional-grade stereo systems and asking friends if you can borrow their balcony for the weekend. The people need to hear what this poet has to say.”—Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives