Despite what the snow showers across the East Coast may lead you to believe, it is officially the first week of April! And while we may not be able to celebrate the start of Spring weather just yet, we can celebrate the 21st anniversary of National Poetry Month!

Drawing inspiration from February's Black History Month and March's Women's History Month, in 1996 the Academy of National Poets founded National Poetry Month to honor the contributions of American poets and encourage the reading, writing and teaching of poetry all over the nation.

While it may seem odd to include poetry in the same category as these minority and social struggles, American poetry has always had a political voice. The idea of poetry as a weapon for political power has only become more important recently, sparking the institution of new resistance movements such as the wide-reaching Writers Resist collective.

In more than 90 cities, including Boston, Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, literary advocates gathered together to protest their frustrations with America’s current political climate and read works dealing with the meaning of democracy.

Poet and Boston University graduate Erin Belieu sparked the movement with a Facebook post urging writers to “Come together and actively help make the world we want to live in”. Belieu worked with a national network of writers, journalists and literary societies across the country to organize almost 100 demonstrations.

The most significant event was in New York City, where more than 2,000 passionate writers, artists, and readers converged on the steps of the New York Public Library to fight for their right to free expression.

Prominent American poet and Boston University professor Robert Pinsky was one of the featured guests at the NYC Writers Resist rally, where he premiered a new poem titled “Exile and Lightening”.

Pinsky’s poem, which served as a sort of counter-inaugural reading, showcases America’s legacy as a land where those people whom he calls “the children of exile” can seek strength and meaning through poetry, science and art.

The author of nineteen books of poetry, essays and translations, Pinsky was honored with the National Endowment for The Humanities Fellowship in 1974 and was named the United States Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1997. Pinsky is currently the only poet to ever serve three terms as America’s national poet, a role that entrusts him with the great responsibility of raising national consciousness and appreciation for both reading and writing poetry.

Almost twenty years ago, Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project: a collaboration of thousands of people from all across the country reading video recordings of their favorite works of poetry as a way to “ demonstrate that poetry has a vigorous presence in the American cultural landscape.” The final product was a collection of short video documentaries showcasing individual Americans reading and speaking about poems that have personally impacted them, covering works by iconic writers like Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda. The project also generated more than 18,000 letters from people all over the country and has been used for years as an engaging way for our nation’s teachers to encourage their students to consider the power of poetry in their own day-to-day lives.

In an interview with the New York Times on Apr. 3, 1998, Pinsky described his reasons for creating The Favorite Poem Project as a way to express the important link between poets and national freedom telling The Times, ''America is not; contrary to popular opinion, a country that ignores its poets. We are a nation with a powerful film industry and visual arts but we, too, are a vital part of American culture.''

Today, Pinsky continues to work as both an advocate for bringing the messages of poets to a larger audience, giving readings at universities across the country and contributing and editing for publications like The New Yorker and The Best of the Best American Poetry.

In addition to his own ongoing writing projects and work with Writers Resist, Pinsky teaches creative writing as a faculty member of Boston University’s MFA program and is currently in California serving as a professor for the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Stanford University.

Recently, I was lucky enough to get in touch with Dr. Pinsky himself through my current internship position at a Cambridge editing firm. I asked him to describe his personal experience with Writers Resist as well as share his thoughts on the way poetry has impacted American culture.

Below is the full transcript of his interview conducted over email on March 8, 2017:

How did you become involved in the Writers Resist movement, and what motivated you to participate in the rally in New York City?

Pinsky: Poets have a stake in truth, and the need to resist falsehood in the Trump administration is clear. I was grateful to be invited by Erin Belieu of Writers Resist and Suzanne Nossel of PEN, to take part in what will be an ongoing resistance.

Which other readings and poems from the protest were particularly impactful or memorable for you?

Pinsky: Jill McDonough woke us all up, and warmed us on that cold day, with a wonderful reading of Seamus Heaney’s “The Republic of Conscience."

What qualities do you believe make writing and poetry an effective form of resistance in the fight for democratic ideals against political injustice?

Poetry, uniquely, gets under an audience’s skin— or to be more precise, into the audience’s breath and vocal cords. Even if we don’t actually say a poem’s words aloud, we imagine saying them. The First Amendment recognizes that literal and figurative and vital aspect of “speech.” The process I mean is demonstrated by the videos at www.favoritepoem.org.

Both your piece and Rita Dove’s reading at the event have been called “inaugural” or “counter-inaugural” works in opposition to President Trump’s official inauguration ceremony. How do you feel about this title?

Pinsky: “Inaugural” refers to a beginning, and resistance to a sinister regime, resistance to what now calls itself “alt-right.” resistance to nativism, anti-Semitism, racism . . . that resistance is, in a word, just beginning.

And what is your opinion about the Trump administration’s decision not to have an official inaugural poet read at the ceremony?

Pinsky: Given issues regarding health care, public education, income inequality, exploitation of women, official falsehood— given such issues, these ceremonial matters have little or no importance.

Your poem, “Exile and Lightning”, deals with America’s multicultural ancestry and legacy as a nation of immigrants. In what ways do you believe that writing and art have contributed to shaping this legacy?

Pinsky: Our music, nearly all of it based somehow on the blues, our feature films, based on our city immigrants and urban fantasies of pioneers as well as pioneers, our fiction with its visions of limit and freedom, the poetry of Dickinson and Whitman — all of that involves the hybrid, fluid nature of American culture, its core of improvisation and blending.

As our country moves forward under this new political administration what do you believe are the best ways for writers, poets, and artists to continue to combat injustice and continue the effort to protect our rights to free speech and expression?

Pinsky: First of all, there are our responsibilities and rights as citizens that we share with everyone: our right and duty to tell our representatives what we think. Second of all . . . well, second of all, every writer and every artist makes a decision of their own.

I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Pinsky about such a meaningful cause, and I hope that by sharing his answers with a wider community of readers, it will convey both the beauty and the power of words. Even if you're not a poet, you still have the ability every day to speak up and make an important decision of your own.