My earliest teachers were those who walked and continue to walk beside me, who learn alongside me. In this way, my poetic lineage is situated not in the before, in the sense of being in the past. Instead, the poets I come from, are before me in the sense of being right in front of me, returning my gaze, answering my questions and asking their own.
This is community. This is what academic and creative life can be. How can groups hold themselves accountable to openness, transparency, and hospitality?