Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of How the Word Is Passed and the poetry collection, Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the American Library Association Black Caucus and was an NAACP Image Award finalist. A writing and literature teacher at the Washington, DC, Central Detention Facility, Smith’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and The Paris Review, among others. He has received fellowships from New America, the Art for Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His TED Talks, “The Danger of Silence” and “How to Raise a Black Son in America,” together have been viewed over 9 million times.
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Martin Luther King Jr. said: “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” As Americans of all backgrounds continue to grapple with the legacy of slavery, its imprin...
Clint Smith and Reginald Dwayne Betts work at the crossroads of multiple disciplines. Both men have pursued graduate degrees in the Ivy League: Smith is working toward his PhD...