Atlanta poet W.J. Lofton finds inspiration from Black, queer and historically marginalized people

In WABE’s “City Lights” series “Speaking of Poetry,” Atlanta’s most prolific wordsmiths discuss the art of evoking emotions with words. For this edition, we feature poet W.J. Lofton.

“I’m from Chicago, but I’ve spent a majority of my life in the South, and that’s important to me to say that the South is the most innovative place in the world,” said Lofton. He continued, “You see so much magic here…you see the freedom movements, human rights movements beginning in the South.”

His work focuses on freedom and how people access it through pleasure, pain and grief. Lofton’s works are inspired by Black people, queer people, differently-abled people, and historically marginalized people. In this episode, Lofton shared a poem called “Property.”