Global Poetics Project

Poetry from Africa, its diasporas, and around the world deserves a wider audience. This channel is where you’ll find it.

Welcome to the Global Poetics Project. My name is Ama Bemma Adwetewa-Badu. I’m a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where I teach African and Black diasporic literature and poetry, and I direct GPP. I earned my PhD at Cornell, and my first book, on poetry around the world, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

Here, we read poems closely, talk with poets, poetry scholars, and lovers of poetry, and explore the ideas behind the poetry: how to read a poem, why global poetry matters, and what poems can tell us about the world. You’ll find the Global Poetics Podcast, close readings of single poems, conversations about new books, and research talks from our lab.

Whether you’re new to poetry or have been reading it for years, there’s a seat at the table for you.