rob macaisa colgate 🇵🇸🍉

ALT A photo of Rob and the NEA logo bc he got the NEA this year and is so grateful for it!!

ALT Rob Macaisa Colgate, 2024 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow

ALT From Rob Macaisa Colgate, Marissa Davis, Chandanie Somwaru, and marion eames white of the 2024 Lilly-Rosenberg Poetry Fellows: While we remain grateful to have been chosen to receive the substantial support of the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships, we would like to clarify our stances regarding the Foundation and our own personal and political affiliations. We are staunchly committed to anti-colonial, anti-genocide, anti-Zionist, and anti-racist efforts. As people of color and thus inheritors of imperial violence, we stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, Hawaiʻi, New Caledonia, undocumented individuals, and all others who suffer under militant hegemonies, Western and otherwise.

ALT In the wake of the lifted boycott, our fellowship applications came with hopes of continued dialogue with the foundation that might lead to action in due time, particularly regarding the boycott organizers’ requests for a code of conduct and a more comprehensive divestment report than what is currently publicly available. We have spoken with the Foundation about these concerns to the fullest extent possible at present. After conversations with both the Foundation and the boycott organizers, we have found that the best path forward for us is to accept these fellowships with gratitude and a collective commitment to justice for marginalized peoples. In taking these fellowships, we do not lend our power to nor represent the Foundation. The Foundation has stated these are primarily monetary awards that do not make us representatives of the institution.

ALT We will be collectively donating $10,000 from our awards. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the causes we care about, and we plan to share a list of the organizations to which we are donating as a means of uplifting them and their meaningful work. Our position as Fellows comes with a commitment to rerouting institutional power through the intentional use of our greater visibility and redistribution of resources held by the Poetry Foundation. In solidarity and action, Rob Macaisa Colgate, Marissa Davis, Chandanie Somwaru, and marion eames white Plain text statement and updates are available at bit.ly/3YKRlqd