Hanif Abdurraqib joined us for the first Detroit Youth Poetry Con in March 2023 to teach a workshop and grace the stage at the public showcase. He spoke with the Metro Times in advance of his appearance.

“With any luck, we will sit down collectively and then leave the room as better writers than we were when we came in,” he says. “Of course, I will be the one with the prompt and the one probably talking the most but the way I think about the time I get to spend, particularly with young writers, is that we have an obligation to teach each other.”