By Debbie Allen and Patricia Thrushart, Cofounders, Poets Against Racism & Hate USA
A museum just steps from the banks of the Ohio River, “Jordan” as it was known in coded slave spirituals. A library on the shores of Lake Erie, where passage to Canada brought a new life. The dairy barn of a farm owned by abolitionists who routinely opened their home, and hearts, to freedom seekers. A historic gasholder roundhouse converted to a center for commemorating the Underground Railroad and honoring African American heritage. The lush gardens of a Victorian Era home in which two young girls escaping the horrors of slavery and making their way north alone found safe harbor. In these poignant spaces, poets involved in the Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour have enlightened and inspired audiences with historic and contemporary poems focused on issues of social justice.
Throughout this year PARH USA is collaborating with the Ohio Poetry Association to present the Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour. Now at the midpoint of the tour—with five events completed and five plus a Capstone Celebration still to come—we think a check-in is due!
The tour combines history presentations and poetry readings to honor Ohio’s role in the Underground Railroad and raise awareness of issues of injustice, hate, and prejudice that persist today. Lectures by local historians, walking tours, and museum exhibits deliver rich detail about ways in which Ohioans aided enslaved African Americans in their self-emancipation by providing them with food, resting places, money, goods, and assistance with travel. As indicated in the opening paragraph, the venues themselves also contribute meaning to the tour. But the emotional high point at each stop is the poetry. Poets from around the state enthrall audiences with works of witness by slavery-era poets such as Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, David Drake, Sarah Louisa Forten, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, and John Greenleaf Whittier and with their own heartfelt poems that spring from lived experiences and intense interest in allyship.
The power of the tour is evident from the feedback offered by those in attendance. Events have garnered praise from audience members moved by the “great power” and “layers of brutality and beauty” in the readings. Press coverage has mentioned the “passionate voices” of the poets and “warm and welcoming environment” of the events. Participating poet Chanda Feldman summed up the impacts of the tour best in a quote in The Oberlin Review following the early May event in Oberlin: “Poetry is a form of activism,” Feldman said. “It has the opportunity to reach into people’s hearts, challenge them, and make them think further about some of the notions that we take for granted and push us to really ask ourselves, how else can we see this? What other questions can we ask that we haven’t asked before?”
It’s not too late to experience the power of the Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour for yourself! With several stops down the line, you may find one that fits your schedule. And the array of activities at each event and historical significance of each venue make the tour worth a road trip if there’s not a stop near you! To find photos and highlights from past events and dates and details for those remaining, visit our Events page. Then make your plan to join us in examining our nation’s history and current challenges through the powerful lens that is poetry.