On the current renaissance in Black art: "We're living in an important moment in Black art because we're living in an important moment in Black life . . . What's been exciting for me is I get to absorb and to live in that creation I see from other African-American artists that I look up to. But then I also get to create art and participate in that historical record. We're seeing it in fashion, we're seeing it in the visual arts. We're seeing it in dance, we're seeing it in music. In all the forms of expression of human life, we're seeing that artistry be informed by the Black experience. I can't imagine anything more exciting than that."
On making sense of history in her poetry: "Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for. It's no coincidence that at the base of the Statue of Liberty, there is a poem. Our instinct is to turn to poetry when we're looking to communicate a spirit that is larger than ourselves. Whenever I'm writing, I'm looking at the history of words. The specific history of words in the inaugural poem was: We have seen the ways in which language has been violated and used to dehumanize. How can I reclaim English so we can see it as a source of hope, purification and consciousness?"