Reuters

A man looks at the damage inside a house left by clashes between Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in the capital, Khartoum, April 17, 2023.

Five days of infighting between rival generals that has killed scores of civilians, seen airstrikes on residential neighborhoods in Khartoum, and left millions trapped without electricity and water, is threatening to unravel Sudan’s cohesion – a scenario that Sudanese activists have warned the international community of for years.

A 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the United Nations, African Union, and the East African Intergovernmental Authority on Development bloc had been set to go into effect Tuesday evening after three previous cease-fires failed to hold. But renewed fighting in the Sudanese capital appeared to be threatening the latest effort.

Civil society groups, activists, and analysts used fleeting internet and phone connectivity to call for an end to the violence. And, amid fighting that killed more than 180 civilians – including three U.N. World Food Program workers – and hit a U.S. diplomatic convoy bearing American flags, to send a message: We told you so.

“We told the international community over and over you cannot trust a military dictatorship and militias,” says Mohamed, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a grassroots collection of independent pro-democracy activists.

“They have always been willing to burn the country down to enrich themselves and gain more power,” he says via messaging app from Khartoum. “Now they are doing it on a larger scale.”

Adds Kholood Khair, political analyst and founding director of Confluence Advisory, a think tank in Khartoum: “There is a lot of serious reflection required from the international community on how they contributed to where we are today and how they ignored the voices of so many people who are now facing the consequences of their choices.”

Andrew Harnik/Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, right, confer after giving a joint statement on the situation in Sudan to members of the media during a G-7 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Karuizawa, Japan, April 17, 2023.

Sudanese activists say the generals’ infighting has exposed the fallacy of the military strongman trope they say Western governments fell for by involving the army and militias in Sudan’s post-revolution political transition.

With the urban warfare threatening to tip Sudan into civil war, civil society groups say the conflict is proof that warlords and generals cannot be turned into statesmen and that democracy and civilian governance with accountability – no matter how messy – is the only path out from the bloodshed.

“The framing of the generals as would-be-reformers who could be taken seriously as goodwill actors shows how ridiculous this entire proposition was,” says Ms. Khair.

From allies to enemies

The fighting erupted Friday between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. The goal: control of Sudan’s military and security sector under a new political system the international community was attempting to push through at breakneck speed.

Although Sudan’s armed forces were the core of the Omar al-Bashir regime, which formed the RSF to commit atrocities in Darfur, both entities were treated as partners by the U.N. and international community in Sudan’s political transition after the popular overthrow of Mr. Bashir in the 2019 democratic revolution.

Up until this month’s fighting, the armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF commander, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were in a partnership.

As U.N.-mediated talks among generals, political parties, and civil society groups over the future of Sudan dragged on, the armed forces and RSF solidified their control over swaths of the economy, state institutions, ports, and gold mines. Generals Burhan and Dagalo then teamed up and launched a coup against the interim civilian government and democratic transition in 2021.

Under a landmark agreement last December brokered by the U.N., U.S., and Arab Gulf states, the military, RSF, civil society, and political groups agreed to a full transfer of power to a civilian government and elections, the much-delayed second phase of Sudan’s transition.

Aron Ranen/AP/File

Sudan's Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan answers questions during an interview in New York, Sept. 22, 2022. He and his current rival had teamed up and launched a coup against the interim civilian government in 2021.

The new agreement, the details of which were workshopped by the international community with stakeholders in Khartoum in March, elevated General Dagalo as General Burhan’s equal and made both subservient to a civilian government – causing friction between the two. 

An official signing of the deal due on April 1 was delayed amid disagreements between the armed forces and RSF over the latter’s integration into the military. Attempts by the paramilitary group to station itself at military bases this month ignited all-out war on Friday.

Khartoum besieged

Unlike previous conflicts in Sudan’s resource-rich rural regions such as Darfur and near South Sudan, the generals’ power struggle has been concentrated in the capital. Urban warfare has put millions on lockdown since Saturday and trapped hundreds of thousands without electricity, water, or access to food.

Fighting on Saturday shut down Khartoum’s airport – which remained closed as of Tuesday – and hospitals were emptied by fighters. Sudanese civilians resorted to pleas on social media for doctors, treatment, and medicines for loved ones.

The army and RSF traded possession of the national state broadcaster back and forth in attempts to prove on live television that they were “in control.”

Most alarming, according to Sudanese sources in Khartoum, the RSF militias stationed themselves in residential areas in the capital, leading the military to conduct airstrikes on densely populated neighborhoods. 

Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at RSF headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan, Feb. 19, 2023. Sudanese democracy activists fault the international community for having treated Gen. Dagalo and his rival as responsible actors, even receiving them in official visits like heads of state.

The RSF’s General Dagalo accused General Burhan of being a “radical Islamist” who is “bombing civilians from the air.” General Burhan used interviews with Al Jazeera and Sky News to declare the RSF “rebels,” call for their dissolution, and point to the violence as proof that “formation of forces outside of the army” should not be allowed in Sudan.

The Popular Resistance Committees in Khartoum issued a simple statement: “The power struggle between generals is not our struggle.”

Even Abdalla Hamdok, the civilian prime minister the military arrested and pushed out with a coup, tried to mediate between the two sides, warning of a “catastrophe.”

Sudanese activists said the international community was partially to blame for the crisis for having treated the armed forces and RSF as responsible actors – with some Arab and African states receiving Generals Burhan and Dagalo in official visits like heads of state – even while they continued to maim and kill pro-democracy protesters and showed no intention of handing over power to a civilian government.

“This is who they are. This is the generals’ true face and they never hid it,” says one activist who did not wish to use her name due to security concerns. “The only difference is now that they have turned on each other rather than crushing unarmed civilians, the whole world can see it.”

By refusing to issue sanctions or consequences for their 2021 coup, says Ms. Khair, the analyst, “there was absolutely no accountability from the international community for these generals for anything they have done.”

Pro-democracy protests continued across the country up until the recent fighting, and demonstrators have continuously called on the U.N. and U.S. to hold the generals to account for their coup.

Even Washington’s foreign policy establishment cited the violence as proof that the West’s attempts to engage the warlords and generals in the political transition was a failure.

Ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said the clashes “reflect a clear pattern of behavior where strongmen try to rule the country through violence,” calling the junta a “major obstacle to Sudanese democracy.”

“Unfortunately, the international community and regional actors fell prey, yet again, to trusting junta Generals Burhan and [Dagalo],” Senator Risch said in a statement released Monday and widely shared by Sudanese on social media Tuesday. “It is clear we need a fundamental shift in U.S. diplomacy.”

Gulf Arab influence

Sudanese actors and Western states have responded to the widening violence with appeals to Arab Gulf states – particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – and to Egypt, which have outsized influence in Sudan and have been the focus of pro-democracy protester chants.

With Khartoum in flames, Secretary Blinken’s first official communications on Saturday were with the UAE and Saudi Arabia foreign ministers to discuss the “dangerous fighting” and its threat to “the security and safety of Sudanese civilians” and “efforts to restore Sudan’s democratic transition.”

“We agreed it was essential for the parties to immediately end hostilities without pre-condition,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement following the talks.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been the biggest backers of and, some diplomats say, advocates for and enablers of both General Burhan and General Dagalo to promote their interests, including control over Sudan’s strategic Red Sea ports.

Egypt, meanwhile, has been an unabashed backer of the armed forces and General Burhan, whom Cairo sees as a like-minded ally who could serve as a military strongman in its neighbor to the south in a vein similar to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Yet as of Tuesday it was clear that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and the Arab League were struggling to get the rival generals to agree to a temporary cease-fire.

Outside Buckingham Palace, thousands of tourists are in a jubilant mood. The springtime sun has burst out. So have the daffodils in nearby St. James’s Park. The only people not smiling are the famously stoic Buckingham Palace guards. Outside the gates, Generation Z sightseer Jasleen Kaur cheerfully banters with relatives who are visiting from India. But she’s hardly in awe of London’s most majestic home, which will host celebrations for King Charles’ coronation on May 6.

To her, the building looks “pretty much useless at the moment,” given that it appears to be uninhabited. Her thoughts on the monarchy strike a similar chord. 

“It doesn’t really affect our day-to-day lives,” says the student from Nottingham. “To be honest, even the coronation and everything, we [aren’t] that interested in it.”

The crowds of tourists here, including visitors from all over Britain, are testament to the royal family’s legacy and heritage. But a March poll by international online group YouGov suggests that 52% of Britons are, like Ms. Kaur, not interested in the coronation. And long-term polling reveals a decline in support for the scandal-plagued institution in recent years. That’s particularly true among millennials and Gen Z. 

Until now, the monarchy has endured because it has historically been stronger than the individuals within it. But some observers say that the widely loved Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for seven decades, became bigger than the monarchy itself. By contrast, Britons aren’t as enthusiastic about her eldest son and heir. The new king’s challenge is to persuade modern-day Britain that the throne is still relevant. For Charles III, the coronation won’t just be a formal ceremony. It will be a vital opportunity to establish the tone of his reign and make a case for the monarchy. 

“Charles is going to have to keep on working at it – and indeed, his son, obviously, too – if it’s going to continue to be valued as an institution,” says Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research, in a phone interview. The center has been tracking trends in attitudes toward the monarchy since 1983.

The king is an “intriguing combination of avant-garde and deep tradition,” says royal historian Sally Bedell Smith, author of “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life.”

“The artist who was commissioned to do this first official portrait of him as king wanted very specifically to bring out his sympathy and humanity, which has always been there for people who have encountered him or who have known him through his charities,” says the author, who has just released “George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy.”

But King Charles, who years ago spent several days living with a farming family in the Outer Hebrides, a chain of islands off the coast of Scotland, needs to convince citizens that he’s the people’s king.

Stephen Humphries/The Christian Science Monitor

Siblings Andre and Natalie Sterling, shopping in London on April 4, are not in favor of continuing the monarchy. A self-described republican, Mr. Sterling says a fairer society requires this shift.

“I believe in trying to create the fairest society possible, and I don’t think that can come about while there is somebody who, by birthright, is historically ‘better’ than everybody else and who rides around in a literal gold carriage,” says Andre Sterling, walking with his sister, Natalie, on Carnaby Street in central London. Behind them, a glittering crown hangs as a decoration over the pedestrian street. The siblings, whose parents immigrated to Britain from Jamaica, favor a republican form of government. 

Over the past year, the treasury in Britain granted the royal family £86 million of taxpayer money. But cab driver Mohsin Raza, who loved Queen Elizabeth II, shrugs.

“I think in return what they bring to this country is massive, the goodwill and tourism,” says Mr. Raza, while waiting for his next customer on Regent Street. 

At a time of rising inflation in Britain, the king’s coronation will be significantly smaller than the previous one: Some 2,000 guests compared to the more than 8,000 attendees for Elizabeth II’s ceremony. The king has made several other bids to seem attuned to modern Britain. In April, the palace announced his support for research into the monarchy’s historic ties to trans-Atlantic slavery. The palace also touted the values of inclusivity and diversity at the coronation. The concert the day after the ceremony will include a choir with amateur singers representing the National Health Service, LGBTQ+ community, and refugees. 

The decision to include refugees in the choir may not have been intended as a critique of the Conservative government’s policy on deportation. But it did have a political impact. In Parliament, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked whether those singing in the choir risked being deported. It’s not the first time that King Charles has created a political stir. The British government asked the new king not to attend COP27, the United Nations climate conference, in Egypt last year. The king, renowned for his longtime advocacy for action on climate change, instead hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace for key COP27 figures prior to the conference.

“It would be difficult for him to unite people,” observes Kathy Clark, commuting on a train from London to a small town in Surrey. “He’s already expressed a wide range of views about things that the people will have opinions on.” 

Stephen Humphries/The Christian Science Monitor

Cab driver Mohsin Raza, who moved to London from India 15 years ago, loved Queen Elizabeth II. He’s waiting to see how the successor to the throne, King Charles, performs. “He has big shoes to fill,” says Mr. Raza, in London on April 4.

Though Ms. Clark says Charles has been vindicated in his longtime advocacy for the environment, she prefers the queen’s policy of not taking public stances.

In his inaugural speech on national television following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the king stressed that he’d respect the apolitical role of the crown. The monarchy can, however, exert soft power. 

“It can give attention to parts of civil society which aren’t of interest to politicians,” says Bob Morris, co-editor of “The Role of Monarchy in Democracy” and an honorary staff member of the constitution unit at University College London. The current Princess of Wales, Kate, “is interested in, for example, early childhood development. If you took an ultra view, you could say, ‘Well, this is interfering in politics,’ but it’s not. It’s trying to give attention to issues which she feels strongly about.”

Queen Elizabeth made the symbolic, yet political, gesture of shaking the hand of former IRA commander Martin McGuinness in 2011. At the time, Mr. McGuinness described it as an opportunity for “a new relationship between Britain and Ireland and between the Irish people themselves.”

King Charles may have a similar task – to create a sense of common cultural heritage to bind Britain together at a time when some in Scotland and Wales favor independence.

“He’s seen as a product of England for many in the Celtic fringes,” says royal watcher Tessa Dunlop, author of the new book “Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy,” “So that is an issue for [the monarchy] as a uniting force within Britain, which is really key in terms of their role within the United Kingdom, because that’s one of our massive fault lines: Are we going to hold it together?”

Polls consistently show less support for Charles and the monarchy within Scotland. More recently, support throughout Britain has taken a dip. Contributing to that may be problems facing Prince Andrew, who last year settled a sexual assault case. In addition, there's the family rift with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, which the British media never tires of writing rancorous headlines about. Prince Harry will be attending his father's coronation.

Last year’s NatCen survey observed that “The 55% who said it was ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important for Britain to have a monarchy in 2021 is the lowest figure on record, while those who said it is either ‘not at all important’ or that it should be abolished reached a quarter (25%) for the first time.”

“The youngest generation of under 35 is particularly less likely to be enamored or think the monarchy is really important than, well, younger people 20 years ago,” says NatCen’s Sir John. If that persists it could lead to a generational shift.

Back outside Buckingham Palace, tourist Matt Raybold expresses confidence that the new king will be “fine,” because he has inherited the character of his parents. “We’re very pro-monarchy,” says the police officer from Birmingham, who’s sightseeing with his family. “It’s all we’ve ever known and we wouldn’t want anything else.”

Nearby, flatbed trucks equipped with whirring cranes are laying panels of flooring over the grass alongside the road where well-wishers will throng to the king and queen consort in their horse-drawn carriage en route to Westminster Abbey.

“One thing we like in this country is a bit of pomp and circumstance,” says Mr. Raybold. “It’ll just give everyone an excuse to forget a little bit about everything that’s going on. And just have a good time together as a family and as a country.”

It’s almost 4 p.m at the Nashville branch of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, or TCAT, and the students in the auto collision repair night class are just starting their school day. 

One is sanding the seal off the bed of his 1989 Ford F-350. Another is patiently hammering out a banged-up fender. A third, Cheven Jones, 26, is taking a break from working on his 2003 Lexus IS 300 to chat with some classmates.  

While almost every sector of higher education is seeing fewer students registering for classes, many trade programs are booming. Mr. Jones and his classmates, seeking certificates and other short-term credentials, not associate degrees, are part of that upswing. 

Mechanic and repair trade programs saw an enrollment increase of 11.5% from spring 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. Enrollment in construction trades courses increased 19.3%, and culinary program enrollment increased 12.7%. Some trade programs are offered at community colleges, but in the same time span, overall enrollment at public two-year colleges declined 7.8%, and enrollment at public four-year institutions dropped by 3.4%, according to NSC.  

Many young people who are choosing a trade program over a traditional four-year degree say that they are doing so because it’s much more affordable, and they see a more obvious path to a job. 

John Amis/AP

Welding instructor Garrett Marris (left) shows student Mason Cantrel how to use a torch during welding class at Tennessee College of Applied Technology Nashville, April 13, 2023.

“These kids are looking for relevance. They want to be able to connect what they’re learning with what happens next,” says Jean Eddy, president of American Student Assistance, a nonprofit focused on career readiness. (ASA is one of the many funders of The Hechinger Report, which produced this story.) “I think many, many families and certainly the majority of young people today are questioning the return on investment for higher education.” 

In Tennessee, the state’s overall community college enrollment took a hit during the pandemic, despite a 2015 state program that made community college tuition free. But at TCAT, a network of 24 colleges across the state that offers training for 70 occupations, many trade programs have continued to grow. At TCAT Nashville, several programs have waiting lists, and the college has been adding night classes to meet demand, says Nathan Garrett, president of the college. 

TCAT focuses on training students for jobs that are in demand in the region, which appeals to many students in normal times, but Mr. Garrett says the pandemic may have underscored the need for workforce relevance. 

“When we look at ‘essential workers,’ a lot of those trades never saw a slowdown,” he says. “They still hired, they still have the need.” Automotive trades are always in demand, he adds.

Even so, Mr. Jones’s pursuit of a degree at TCAT Nashville would perhaps be a surprise to his high school self. “I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to do,” he says, “and my biggest fear was to go to college, put in all that time and effort and then not use my degree.” 

So, at 18, he went to work in warehouses, spending long days loading and unloading heavy boxes from tractor-trailers. But after just a few years, he realized he needed a job that would make him happier, hurt him less, and pay him more. Trade school for a career fixing cars, he decided, seemed like the best route. 

John Amis/AP

Robert Nivyayo poses with his car during auto collision repair class in Nashville, Tennessee, April 13, 2023. Training in this field made sense for him, he says, because he could earn a credential while doing what he enjoyed, and without spending much time in the traditional classroom.

Nineteen-year-old Robert Nivyayo’s priorities became clear a bit earlier in his education, when he realized he didn’t like high school. He said he spent most of his free time watching YouTube videos about fixing up cars before he was even licensed to drive.  

Training in auto collision repair made sense for him, he says, because he could earn a credential while doing what he enjoyed, and without spending much time in the traditional classroom. He’s looking forward to the anticipated payoff, when he gets a job in an auto shop. He can expect to make roughly $40,000 to $60,000 a year, depending on the shop, his instructor says. 

“Every new day, I just get more motivated,” Mr. Nivyayo says. 

Just a few doors down, Abbey Carlson is in the welding studio, wearing jeans with holes burnt through them and a cap to protect her hair. She’s the only woman in the nighttime welding class.

Ms. Carlson, now 24, had initially intended to attend a four-year college, but her plans were derailed by an addiction to alcohol. After dedicating herself to recovery, she decided to pursue a career in the trades. 

After researching her options, she concluded that welding would be the safest path to take as a young woman while also offering her the highest eventual earning potential, she says. So far, she’s enjoying her time at TCAT Nashville. 

“Finally, I feel like I’m going to accomplish something in life,” she says.

John Amis/AP

Abbey Carlson, a Tennessee College of Applied Technology Nashville student, is training to be a welder in part because it offered her the highest eventual earning potential.

Laura Monks, president of the Shelbyville branch of TCAT, says one of the reasons TCAT appeals to students is the school’s “co-op” program, which gives students who are nearing graduation the chance to work in their desired field a few days a week while also getting credit toward their diploma.

Brayden Johnson, 20, who is in his fifth trimester studying industrial maintenance automation, has had the chance to work as an electrical maintenance technician in a local factory that makes tubes for toothpaste. He’s working the night shift, which comes with a slight pay bump, and is earning about $26 per hour. 

He hopes to stay in the job after he finishes at TCAT this spring, he says.  

Mr. Garrett of TCAT Nashville, which also runs a co-op program, says students are drawn to the hands-on design of the courses and the general philosophy that “You need to get your hands on the equipment, you need to start building stuff, breaking stuff, and then learn how to fix that stuff.” 

The opportunity to get real work experience before they graduate is an extra perk. The employer reports back to the student’s instructor so they know where the student is excelling and where they are struggling and can work on those weaknesses in class, Mr. Garrett says. 

Ms. Eddy of ASA says the increased interest in the trades doesn’t necessarily mean these students won’t later go on to earn bachelor’s degrees, but that “they are excited, and they’re more interested in getting into something where they can feel as though they are applying their skills and their talents to something that they can be good at.”

For Mr. Jones, the TCAT Nashville student, the game plan is to transform his car by the time he graduates, and have fun while doing it.  

“It’s school, and I take it seriously. But you know, you come here, and it just feels more like you’re at a shop hanging out with your homies all day,” he says. “It’s a good feeling.” 

After he graduates, he hopes to get a job in an auto body shop.  

And he says he’ll keep working until someday he can afford a red 1982 Nissan Skyline R31, RS Turbo with bronze wheels – his dream car. Even if he can’t get one in perfect condition, at least he’ll know how to fix it up. 

Editor’s note: This story about trade school programs was produced by The Hechinger Report, as part of the series Saving the College Dream, a collaboration between Hechinger and Education Labs and journalists at The Associated Press, AL.com, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Seattle Times, and The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.

To readers who love poetry, the art form appears as vibrant and unexpected as a swath of wildflowers running along a highway. Favorite books and poems take root and bloom in memory, resurfacing when needed, just as spring does every year. New collections offer the opportunity to explore a variety of insights, ideas, and discoveries.

April – which is National Poetry Month – is a time to celebrate this genre, which existed before written language and serves to anchor us to the past and who we have been. Poetry also reflects who we are now and what we might become.

Three new books by contemporary poets offer fascinating glimpses of 21st-century America, the challenges we face, and how poetry can help us re-imagine ourselves. 

Fatherhood’s complicated emotions

One of the most anticipated poetry collections this spring is “Above Ground,” by Clint Smith. While many readers may know Smith for his prose – he is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the bestselling narrative nonfiction book “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” – he is also an award-winning poet. His first collection, “Counting Descent,” won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. 

In “Above Ground,” Smith recounts how fatherhood has changed his life, from the time he first saw a sonogram of his son and later his son’s early delivery, to the birth of his daughter, and how he and his wife have juggled the challenges of parenting. 

Often, the speaker in these poems sounds as if he could be any father celebrating his child’s first smile, struggling to assemble an electric baby swing, and sometimes wrestling with the thought “that we are welcoming you into the flames / of a world that is burning. / Some days, I am afraid that I am / more kindling than water.” That sense of universality, conveyed through evocative, well-crafted writing, immediately draws the reader in with details anyone can appreciate and understand.

Other poems seem wonderfully familiar yet rich with distinctive details, as when the speaker describes aspects of his family history, how he knows he married the right woman, or dancing in an aisle of the grocery store with his son strapped to his chest.

Smith’s thoughtful, considered tone gives the work much of its power, even when he writes about the contradictions and inconsistencies in life, historic and enduring injustices, and the fears that many Black parents feel about the safety of their children. Those poems become a bridge for understanding and connection because they distill experiences and language down to their essence. 

This potent, memorable collection also illustrates how poetry can appear simple yet contain subtle music and rich imagery, while giving voice to complex emotions. 

The power of Black women

Mahogany L. Browne’s “Chrome Valley” was published in February to rave reviews. The bold, insistent work is the 10th collection of poems by Browne, the inaugural poet-in-residence of the Lincoln Center in New York City and the founder and publisher of Penmanship Books. Browne is also an award-winning performance poet who has released five LPs of her work and served for 13 years as the Friday Night Slam curator and Poetry Program director at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Lower Manhattan.

Browne’s background as a performance poet can be heard and felt throughout this collection, which uses direct, fearless language to present a prismatic picture of the Black female experience in America. That rendering includes generations of women whose strength shaped their families and communities. “We praise their names / & the hands that write / Praise the mouth that speaks,” Browne writes of previous generations.

Browne’s own mother, Redbone, appears often in these pages, as the speaker navigates girlhood, young love, and the complexities of relationships.

The joy in some poems is palpable, as in these lines from “The Rink”: “the couples skate / hip to hip / side to side / footwork intimate as a kiss.” Other pieces portray harsher realities, such as the occasional shock when friendship turns into a slap in the face, hair pulling, or fighting. 

“Redbone got a spine for the world,” the speaker notes in “Redbone Reflection.” That fortitude is necessary, as the poem demonstrates, to deal with the challenges of racism and the struggle for social justice that many Black women face. Browne shows how even a cul-de-sac, which should represent safety, means “generational trauma”:

an heirloom mausoleum 

belts wrapped around knuckles

hot wheel tracks mimic skin reaper. 

“Chrome Valley” may startle some readers with its fearless, sometimes brazen language and unvarnished depictions of life. Those who embrace Browne’s candor and rhythms will immediately be transported from their lives to the world she describes, where a legacy of suffering and the fear of losing sons weigh heavily, yet do not defeat the strength of Black women. 

Small gems of observation, wry humor

“Musical Tables,” published a few months ago, is the latest collection by Billy Collins, who has long been a fan favorite, drawing crowds to readings pre-pandemic. He was the United States poet laureate from 2001-2003, developing the Poetry 180 program for high schools during his tenure, and he served as New York’s poet laureate from 2004 to 2006.

What makes Collins “the most popular poet in America,” as he has been dubbed by The New York Times, is his signature mix of dry humor, perceptive observations, and accessibility, punctuated by constant surprises.

In “Musical Tables,” Collins presents 125 short poems, some of which feel like haiku – a three-line form originally from Japan – while others present brief snapshots or postcards, with just enough text to convey a mystery, question, or discovery. 

The brevity of the poems will remind some readers of their earliest encounters with poetry, when surprising visuals and phrasing made the genre seem almost magical. 

Collins often juxtaposes unlikely creatures or situations, as in “Highway,” where a person walking along notices an ant headed in the opposite direction, or in “Aa,” where “At school, / always seen together / capital and small, parent and child.” 

By allowing himself very little space to turn a phrase or challenge an expectation, Collins makes those feats more effective and resonant. He also highlights the value of unencumbered thoughts as he covers a range of topics, from the effects of wind and rain, to being home during the pandemic, to how certain sounds highlight the passage of time.  

His approach underscores the importance of free association and creativity, even in the midst of hectic days. The best of these poems also demonstrate how poetry can change and challenge how one sees.

In the poem “Spacing,” for example, drivers stopped in Los Angeles traffic ... 

look like they are pretending

to be from earth,

and not from some other planet

where this kind of thing never occurs.

While the works of Smith, Browne, and Collins are vastly different, they all challenge perceptions, broadening and deepening the landscape of poetry. They remind us why this art form matters. 

Elizabeth Lund's "Un-Silenced," a collection of poems about women dealing with domestic violence, was published earlier this year.   

Reuters

Iranian women shop at the Tajrish Bazaar, ahead of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in Tehran, March 15.

The main news out of Iran these days is how the Islamic regime has found new ways to force women to cover their heads. Since mass protests last year, the “morality police” have been withdrawn from the streets. Yet now street cameras catch the faces of women who defy the wearing of hijab. Universities must reject women who don’t follow the practice, while neighbors are encouraged to snitch on them. Even recent cases of girls being poisoned at their schools are widely attributed to the regime as a tactic to enforce religious conformity.

But the more significant news is how Iranians in general have changed their core beliefs, especially after this latest and harshest crackdown. A recent poll showed very few still are practicing Muslims. In cities, only a quarter of adults pray five times a day. In rural areas, only a third do. The percentage is even lower for those 20-29 years old. The numbers are about the same for men and women.

This new mental liberation has resulted in other trends that indicate an alternative search for meaning in life. Some seek an identity in Iran’s pre-Islamic culture, shown in celebrations of Cyrus the Great Day. Others celebrate Valentine’s Day (which was banned in 2010). Many celebrate Nowruz, the pre-Islamic Iranian New Year, rather than the founding of the Islamic Republic, which was in 1979.

“Despite the regime’s increased efforts to outlaw such practices [as hijab] and Islamize every aspect of Iranian culture, the number of Iranians celebrating these secular practices continues to grow each year,” states a report by the Tony Blair Institute.

More than three-quarters of Iranians who want regime change also consider religion unimportant to their lives. This leaves room for them to explore ways other than Islam to direct their lives. That could have huge implications for both the regime and the region.

“The single most liberating event for the Middle East will come when the Iranian people finally have their freedom,” says Tony Blair, a former British prime minister.

Among Iran’s ruling conservatives, the secularization trend has reportedly reopened old debates on how Iran should reconcile strict clerical rule with democracy. That internal debate erupted a decade ago during the presidency of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani. “Let us leave the people so they can find the way to heaven by themselves. We cannot take them to heaven with force and lashing!” he said. Today Mr. Rouhani, now out of office, has been sidelined.

Soon after Mr. Rouhani criticized strict enforcement of Islamic dress code, a prominent cleric, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, warned: “If the hijab doesn’t exist, the Islamic regime will be destroyed.” That helps explain why the regime has only increased its enforcement of an outward expression of Muslim life. Yet it is the new inner life of Iranians that bears watching. Their quest may end up being bigger news.