"Because We Come From Everything": Poets share their immigration stories
“I think people naturally come to poetry in times of crisis and confusion,” said Jen Benka, head of the American Academy of Poets, which organized the effort. “But for this project we took the poetry to them.”
"Read these poetry postcards from immigrants, refugees and others touched by migration" from PBS Newshour showcases work from our very own Tamiko Beyer and Hyejung Kook, with statements about their experiences with the Migration Poetry Postcard Project.
Hyejung Kook, a poet who was born in Seoul, Korea, grew up in Pennsylvania and now lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, said the project pushed her to "think more deeply about my experience as an immigrant as well as the idea of migration in the larger world."
Postcards and interviews with migrants from Syria, Guam, Myanmar, China, and the Congo are also featured.