Teaching While Black

by Matthew E. Henry

A riveting debut from poet-educator MEH, Teaching While Black is an honest, relentless portrait of the contemporary American classroom. MEH is in conversation with the past masters of American literature: Baldwin, Brooks, DuBois, Hughes, Morrison, and, behind them, the bloody thoughts of Shakespeare himself. But it is Rilke whose words best sum up this collection: "here there is no place / that does not see you. You must change your life." —Timothy E. G. Bartel, author of Aflame But Unconsumed: Poems.


In this book, MEH, a.k.a Matthew Henry, offers fascinating snapshots of teacher-student predicaments that can occur for an African American in a white system. But the book also reveals the ironies involved in exchanges between any well-educated teacher and youngsters in school. Towards the end of the book Matthew reveals his own history as a student—how it felt to be bussed and educated in the white system he has now joined. These poems are deeply moving because they are so deeply felt, so carefully, lovingly crafted. —Jeanne Murray Walker, Author of Pilgrim, You Find the Path by Walking


MEH? Hardly. Embodying a prophetic vocation, speaking in tongues, code-switching, this poet bears witness in a world of students, parents, administrators. No one in this book is a cliche. MEH reminds us by conflating trigger- with twitter-finger, the speaker is on an edge: if anger can be specific, so can humor. So can compassion. Truth. —Jeanine Hathaway, Long after Lauds

Genres: Poetry

43 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is an educator, essayist, occasional fiction writer, and the author of multiple collections of poetry. The editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal, a poetry editor at American Poetry Journal, and nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary, MEH’s poetry and prose appears in Barren Magazine, The Florida Review, Massachusetts Review, New York Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, Solstice, and Zone 3 among others. MEH received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. You can find him at www.MEHPoeting.com writing about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground.

Reviews

[Michael Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If teaching weren’t already difficult, Matt’s poetic tirade against societal foibles the pangs of teaching while Black. “Stop talking” and “an open letter...” are my favorites, but each one resonates for different reasons.

If you’re a white reader, understand this is a glimpse of moments that occur, stories that are familiar as I listen to my black colleagues. Listen, read, learn, and repeat.