Poet Claudia Rankine was awarded a 2016 MacArthur “Genius” grant for her work that engages with contemporary American culture, particularly issues of race.
The MacArthur Foundation describes Rankine as “a poet illuminating the emotional and psychic tensions that mark the experiences of many living in twenty-first-century America. Over the course of five poetry collections, Rankine has adopted different forms of poetic expression that correspond to the trajectory of her concerns from the private to the public….In addition to her poetry, Rankine has become a critical voice in current conversations about racial violence through essays, lectures, and a co-created series of short films entitled Situations. Rankine is crafting critical texts that are proving to be essential for understanding American life while also enriching the craft of poetry with a new sense of agency and urgency.”
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-claudia-rankine-20160921-snap-story.html
