At the Poetry Foundation, Sara Ivry interviews a host of poets on the occasion of Cave Canem’s twentieth anniversary. Robin Coste Lewis points to the brilliance of founders Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in situating Cave Canem above the fray:

We’re here to write and to write about our own experiences, our own cultures, sometimes, sometimes not—we’re here to write about hummingbirds, too, without having to fight for our right simply to hold a pen or for our right simply to read other black poets.