“Ink becomes sacred when it carries the voice of a people.”

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ABOUT BLACK INK POETRY

Black voices singing into the night.

Mellow tones vibrating among the shimmering starlit sky.

I spread the net, capturing the words in on a web.

The Black Ink Review is a guardian, a home for the Griot.  The Black Ink Review is a haven for poetic expression. 

The Black Ink Review follows the footprints of the strong periodicals which spawn the Black Arts Enterprise of the 1960’s and 70’s, while strengthening the ranks of publications currently dedicated to the publication of “Black Ink”.

POETIC FORM OF THE MONTH

RULES OF THE SKINNY FORM

The "Skinny” is a short poem form that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh (last line) must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however, they can be rearranged--and poems can be linked as series pieces). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. All the lines in this form, except for the first and last lines, must be comprised of ONLY one word. The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in the Tony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University in 2005 (© 2026). Note: The plural form of Skinny is Skinnys, a deliberate grammatical deviation chosen by the form’s creator for aesthetic effect. Additionally, poetry Poetry written in this form should not be called “Skinny poems,” just as one would not refer to haiku as “haiku poems,” since the added “poems” is redundant.

“Black ink carries the rhythm of generations.”

Tayari Jones is a New York Times bestselling author

celebrated for her emotionally rich, character-driven novels exploring Southern Black families. A Spelman College graduate, her 2018 novel, An American Marriage, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction.Her fifth novel, Kin (2026), is an Oprah’s Book Club pick set in the mid-20th-century American South. The historical fiction story follows two motherless childhood friends, Vernice Davis and Annie Johnson, whose lives sharply diverge. Vernice ascends into Atlanta’s Black elite society, while Annie embarks on a dangerous road trip to Memphis to find her birth mother. Written in alternating perspectives, Kin examines how their sisterhood endures across vast class divides and physical distance.

Exploring powerful themes of maternal abandonment, female agency, and social mobility, Kin is a beautifully written, high-stakes masterpiece. It is an ideal pick for book clubs and fiction lovers alike.

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