I am grateful to Mid-Atlantic Review for publishing four of my new poems about Langston Hughes. These poems reflect on places Hughes lived and worked in Washington, D.C. They are part of a larger project of poems about Langston Hughes’ life and poems. Check them out HERE.
I am full of gratitude to FlowerSong Press for nominating “If Only” for the 2023 Pushcart Prize. “If Only” tries to honor the life of Elijah McClain, who was murdered by police in Aurora, Colorado in 2019. Elijah McClain, a young Black man, was known to many people as a gentle man, a violinist, who played his violin in animal shelters to calm frightened animals. I am also grateful to be included beside these fine poets.
Valley Voices, a beautiful literary journal from Mississippi Valley State University, recently published a Civil Rights Issue. I am glad to have my poem, “What Carolyn Bryant Said” included with many poets I admire. I am grateful to John Zheng who edited this issue, November 2023
My poem, “In All My Education, No Teacher or Professor Ever Spoke the Name ‘Harriet Tubman’ in a Classroom” has been published in About Place Journal, The Center of Gravity Issue. You can read it and the other poems from this issue here. Big thanks to guest editor, Marjory Wentworth for selecting and publishing this poem.
Thanks to Kim Roberts and Jon Gann for including my poem, “Meeting,” in Pride Poems, 2022. Thanks also to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This is a wonderful project highlighting one “love poem” each day in June, 2022. Take a look here: Pride Poems.
I am thrilled to have two poems in the new anthology, WHERE WE STAND: Poems of Black Resilience, edited by Melanie Henderson, Truth Thomas, and Enzo Silon Surin, published by Cherry Castle Publishing. Some of the poets in the anthology are pictured above. L to R: Joseph Ross, Brandon Johnson, Kenny Carroll, Reuben Jackson, and Melanie Henderson.
America Magazine recently published an interview featuring my work teaching poetry as a tool for learning justice and empathy. You can have a look HERE at this interview by Ciaran Freeman.
My poem, “Hammering on Rocks: For Nelson Mandela,” was set to music by New York composer, Brett L. Wery, in his four-song cycle, “Quarry Songs.” Below is a link to the opening performance. “Hammering on Rocks” is the first of the four songs, followed by songs based on Reginald Harris’ poem, “Normal,” Laura Tohe’s poem “My Body Holds Stones,” (Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation) and “Museum of Stones,” by Carolyn Forche. The performers: soprano, Areli Mendoza-Pannone, baritone, Robert Frazier, with pianist, Mark Evans. I am so grateful to Brett Wery and these talented performers.
My poem “Late” from Raising King, is featured in the New York Times Magazine, September 17, 2020. Find it here: “Late.”
Here is the video from my reading with Michael Torres at the Pratt Library in Baltimore on March 10, 2021. Enjoy the poems!
It was an honor to serve as the featured poet for the 2020 Lucille Clifton Reading, sponsored by the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society. Here is a link to the entire reading which includes a welcome from Susan Thornton Hobby, introduction by poet E. Ethelbert Miller, and then the reading. Thanks to poet and friend, Alan King for capturing this reading. 2020 Lucille Clifton Reading featuring Joseph Ross reading from Raising King.
On July, 19, 2021, I was interviewed and shared two poems on Cedric Riley’s program, “America’s Next Motivator.” We had a wonderful conversation about teaching and poetry. You can watch the program here. Big Thanks to Cedric Riley for all the good work he gives the world.
Thanks to Susan Hobby of the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society for writing a blog post about my Willie Louis poems. Louis testified in Mississippi in 1955 against the men who killed Emmett Till. Here’s the post!
My poem “For Zella Ziona” appears in the anthology WHAT SAVES US: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the age of Trump, edited by Martin Espada, 2019, from Curbstone Books, Northwestern University Press.
My poem, “On John Coltrane’s ‘After the Rain'” was recently published on BourgeonOnline. Check it out.
Click here for my 8/6/2017 reading and interview with Isaac Asare on “The Random Hour” from Radio Fairfax. I read several poems from ACHE and talk about poetry and protest.
Click HERE to listen in on my “Poet and the Poem” reading and interview from the Library of Congress with Grace Cavalieri. This was recorded October 6, 2016. Thanks to Grace Cavalieri and Mike Turpin. I read ten poems and Grace and I talk for about thirty minutes.
In this episode of Howard County Poetry & Literature Society’s “The Writing Life,” my friend, poet E. Ethelbert Miller interviews me at Howard Community College.
“Praise Song / Sorrow Song: DEMZ” and “March 24, 1980” Both of these poems appear in Origins Journal. Check them out here.
“Trayvon Martin: Requiem” has been published by WORDPEACE,
an online poetry journal focusing on questions of justice and peace.
Thanks to editors Monica Hand and Lori Desrosiers.
“Nelson Mandela Speaks to Trayvon Martin” Filmed by
Kirsten Leenars, 2015 D.C. Arts Center, #thisistomorrow.
“If Mamie Till Was The Mother of God” Read by Katy Richey
for #BlackPoetsSpeakOut #BlackLivesMatter
Split This Rock Poetry Database has three of my poems: “If You Leave Your Shoes,” “Hammering on Rocks,” and “In A Summer of Snipers.” Check them out at Split This Rock.
“When Your Word Is a Match” and “Eighteen Years” read by
E. Ethelbert Miller on WPFW, 89.3 FM Washington, D.C.
“On The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington, D.C.” Filmed
by Orlando Pinder & Stevi Calandra.
On Fritz Eichenberg’s ‘Pieta’ published by and recorded for Anomalous Press.
Disciples published in Sojourners, March 2011.
Joseph Ross 
You are really awesome
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Thank you.
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