This poem is included in the digital library as part of a partnership between the OHSU Library and the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative to share Narrative Medicine curriculum and the items used in those teaching sessions. For additional information about how the poem is used in teaching and a community driven context, please visit Accessible Narrative Medicine website.

Before obtaining his PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, Jericho Brown, a Louisiana native, served as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans. Additionally, he has a BA from Dillard University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans. He is currently an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. His writing covers his own experiences growing up as an African-American man in the US. (Source: arts.gov)