A poetic account of the Amistad revolt

This story was originally reported by PRI’s Studio 360. For more, listen to the audio above.

For twenty years now, Kevin Young has been working on an epic poem about the captive Africans on the ship Amistad. “In poetry years, I don’t think of that as very long, but I guess today when things are instantaneous, it seems long” Young says. “Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels,” includes the voices of many people on the ship and moves between epistle and libretto.

Young first became interested in the story when he started reading letters from the men fighting for their freedom:

It was the kind of thing where I thought, ‘well, here are these amazing writers’ — these 19th century Africans, and I think, in many ways becoming African American figures, writing. And I didn’t know about them, and here was this way to connect with this language that they were learning, and all the questions the case raised, but also just their stark, human, proud, condition.

Writing the account as a poem allows Young to explore some of the uncomfortable questions and contradictions in the story. Many people think of poetry as a “airy, far-off idea,” Young says. But that’s not true for him. He tells studio 360, “I think of it as the dirt and the earth and the primal things of our nature.”

You can hear Young reading a part of his epic poem in the audio above.

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PRI’s Peabody Award-winning “Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen” from WNYC is public radio’s smart and surprising guide to what’s happening in pop culture and the arts. Each week, Kurt Andersen introduces you to the people who are creating and shaping our culture. Life is busy — so let “Studio 360” steer you to the must-see movie this weekend, the next book for your nightstand, or the song that will change your life.