This work illuminates today's Black experience through the voices of transformative and powerful African American poets. Included in this volume are the poems of 43 African American wordsmiths, including Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Rita Dove, Natasha Tretheway, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Tracy K. Smith. Each is accompanied by a photograph of the poet along with a first-person biography. The anthology also contains personal essays on race such as The Talk by Jeannine Amber and works by Harry Belafonte, Amiri Baraka, and The Reverend Dr. William Barber II, architect of the Moral Mondays movement, as well as images and iconic political posters of the Black Lives Matter movement, Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party. Taken together, Of Poetry and Protest gives voice to the current conversation about race in America while also providing historical and cultural context. Elizabeth Alexander -- Amiri Baraka -- Wanda Coleman -- Kwame Dawes -- Toi Derricotte -- Rita Dove -- Camille T. Dungy -- Cornelius Eady -- Kelly Norman Ellis -- Thomas Sayers Ellis -- Nikky Finney -- C. S. Giscombe -- Duriel E. Harris -- Reginald Harris -- Terrance Hayes -- Angela Jackson -- Major Jackson -- Tyehimba Jess -- Patricia Spears Jones -- Douglas Kearney -- Yusef Komunyakaa -- Quraysh Ali Lansana -- Haki Madhubuti -- devorah major -- E. Ethelbert Miller -- Harryette Mullen -- Marilyn Nelson -- Sterling Plumpp -- Eugene B. Redmond -- Ishmael Reed -- Ed Roberson -- Sonia Sanchez -- Evie Shockley -- Tim Seibles -- Patricia Smith -- Tracy K. Smith -- Lamont B. Steptoe -- Natasha Trethewey -- Quincy Troupe -- Frank X Walker -- Afaa M. Weaver -- Ronaldo V. Wilson -- Al Young. edited and compiled by Philip Cushway and Michael Warr.