Brickbat: Black Diamonds

Grace Pritt, a
student at West Virginia’s Hurricane High School, earned a slot as
a finalist in the Poetry Out Loud contest and an invitation to
recite the poem she’d used in the contest at the Governor’s Arts
Awards ceremony. Then, state officials discovered that the poem
she’d performed was “Black Diamonds,” a work by Charleston poet
Crystal Good that honors the widows of the 29 men who died in
the Upper
Big Branch Mine Disaster. “I really hate to do this to you, but
because your poem deals with coal and many state representatives
will be there, our director wants you to choose a different poem,”
Division of Culture and History grant coordinator Tabitha Walter
told Pritt in a email. But after media picked up the story,
officials said there had been some miscommunication and they’d love
for Pritt to perform “Black Diamonds.”