In the absence of an answer that is complicated and sort of maybe troubling, we sometimes settle for the easy answer. It's easier to believe that my discomfort comes from some fact that is being hidden from me. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
There's always been really interesting, diverse black voices talking and arguing and counterpointing. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
I think Barnum is at the center of American culture. He's helping to invent what we now think of as pop culture. He invented… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
I do think there's a certain savviness to be able to recognize the way people want a good story, and I think that we… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Here are the facts: my folks grew up so poor that, in the words of Redd Foxx, there were twenty o's between the p… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Even Toni Morrison claiming Bill Clinton as 'black' could not prepare us for the election of America's first undeniably black president, Barack Obama. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
A DJ draws a connection between two seemingly disparate things and says, 'Look, they are alike. You can dance to them.' — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Forget reparations - we need to rescue aspects of black culture abandoned even by black folks, whether it is the blues or home cookin'… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
I remember in the '80s, people would literally have arguments over the best guitarist. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
In African-American culture, there's often a family historian, someone who does the genealogy or keeps the family Bible. I became aware that might be… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
“Deep Song Belief is what buries us—that & the belief in belief— No longer do I trust liltlessness —leeward is the world's way—Go on… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
That sense of mystery, but also of revelation, is what I turn to poems for. They're able to embody experience. We need more and… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
In a long poem or a sequence of poems, you're trying to formalize your obsessions and give them a shape and a name. The… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
We quickly erase hoaxes once exposed, excising the monstrous palimpsest, because as with any witch hunt or obvious fake, afterward we can't quite explain… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
