I'm Adalimum and this is The Slowdown.

Here's a peek behind the scenes at The Slowdown.

When Jennifer Lai was the producer, we thought we should try to include some more uplifting

poems.

We started a folder named Hope, Joy, etc.

And it remained empty for months.

I kept searching for poems that had an uplifting tilt to them and so did my producer, but

instead we kept being drawn to the heavier poems.

When our new producer, Micah, arrived, we laughed about the empty folder and then it still

remained empty.

It's not that we don't love poems about Hope and Joy.

It's just that right now what we're finding is that poets are urgently responding to

the brutal truths of the world.

I am grateful for the work that's asking us to reckon with our country and our society's

destructive nature.

I find myself more and more drawn to the poems that are speaking toward a collective grief

or a collective rage.

It makes sense to me that this is what today's amazing poets are writing.

It also makes sense that this is what we as readers need.

This working towards poems that are sharpened tools made to call out the injustices of

our world is something I'm deeply interested in as both a writer and as a reader.

I am curious how poems can be not just a light in the dark or a beacon or as Maya Angelou

...