It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child. I would also say that it takes a village to be a human. "The People's Project: Poems, Essays and Art for Looking Forward" offers up that village through the presence of twenty-six writers whose words and images, thoughts and challenges chart a path forward in this time of great uncertainty for so many.

Facilitated by Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones, "The People's Project" is inspired by Jones and Smith's post-2024 election conversations. These were conversations guided by thoughts on what we can do, individually and collectively, to work toward being light when even the institutions shine darkness toward us.

I will confess that I initially struggled to get into the communal rhythm of "The People's Project." In fact, I was right around 50% in before I began to deeply resonate with the words, ideas, and energy vibrating throughout the pages. It wasn't that anything was necessarily wrong. If anything, it was, perhaps, a sense that I had become enveloped by my guardedness and I was struggling to embrace the safety within these words.

Then, I reached a piece offered by Jones. I released.

I reached a piece by Alice Wong. I released.

I reached another. Release.

Suddenly, I felt the light being put forth and really began to embrace this project so much so that even as I wound down my time with "The People's Project I began to read it again.

"The People's Project" isn't necessarily about any one thing. Instead, it draws wisdom and hope from different communities. The way forward isn't one thing. It's us. It's all us.

It's enlightened voices familiar and perhaps not as familiar here like Jones, Tiana Clark, Imani Perry, Ada Limon, Joy Harjo, Alice Wong, Jason Silverstein, Randall Man and a host of others.

A relatively quick read, "The People's Project" isn't so much a book to be read as it is a book to be experienced. It's a book you read. Then, it's a book you slowly read. Then, it's a book where you find those spaces where you resonate most deeply and you bathe in them. It's a book that makes you think and feel, release and move forward.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic