The Poetariat is a Black-led international poetry journal that exists to empower and unite the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) working-class poets all over the world who use their words to work for justice. Although we welcome submissions from all working-class poets, The Poetariat centers the poetry of Pan-African and Black diasporan poets, poets of color, and Indigenous poets who recognize the critical role culture does and must play in waging organized struggle against the forces of imperialism, global white supremacy, capitalist exploitation, ableism, cis hetero-patriarchy, and classism. We encourage submissions from all expressions of our collective consciousness rooted in movements of justice and liberation for all oppressed communities around the world.
All writing is inspired by the world around us. All writers take positions on the realities under which we live. The Poetariat exists to change our reality in ways that benefit the many. We reject the idea that getting published should be our main concern as writers. We believe that the poet’s primary purpose is to inspire thought and action which can lead to humanity’s progress. We will not allow our art to be placed in service of those who would use it to proclaim the equality of their system. We have no interest in being acknowledged or honored by a system ruled by those privileged as a consequence of oppressions historic and present. We reject their value system that appeals to a faux multi-cultural status quo that purports notions of upward mobility in a world awash with poverty and suffering. We understand why such a system would reject us, question the relevance of our art, denounce us, and marginalize us. We understand theirs as the contradictory speech of a system defending its fundamental inequality. Ours is a call from the margins. Like our ancestors before us who established maroon communities, The Poetariat is our liberated home for our work forged from our desire for true freedom. And it is from this home that we will organize for a more just, more loving, more equitable world.