Kweku John joins the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts as an assistant professor of English. John was drawn to LMU’s English Department because of its approach to educating the whole person and giving faculty the creative freedom to design their courses. As a poet, John does not see writing as a solitary act, and his mission is to bridge the gap between the LMU campus and the greater Los Angeles creative community. After publishing his debut poetry collection “Saltwater Demands a Psalm,” it won the Academy of American Poets’ first book prize. John worked with the Academy to hold various poetry readings, sharing his work in unique spaces and avenues. As an act of decolonization, he writes under the last name “Abimbola” which was his family’s last name before British colonization of Sierra Leone.
“I want students to see poetry as a tool for social change,” says John. “Poetry should be central as it allows students to put their ideas into language, and that language can be used to reach others and be the spark for social change.”
John is currently teaching two poetry seminars, “AfroPresentism: an Eco-Poetics of Now!” and “Fugitive Music: Rhythm, Resistance, and Self-Revelation.” These courses approach poetry through indigenous and Afro-diasporic lenses, which he hopes will inspire students to take novel and interdisciplinary risks with their writing. Additionally, both courses require students to leave the Loyola Marymount campus and attend a creative event in the greater Los Angeles area.
John earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in African American Studies and English, with a concentration in creative writing, at the University of Virginia. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan, where he was heavily involved in the “Inside Out Literary Arts” program, teaching elementary-level students poetry and short fiction. Inside Out Literary Arts helped amplify John’s relationship with creative community and taught him to embrace wildness in writing.
John is a dancer, photographer, and active member of the Radical Hood Library, a nonprofit community space that pairs social justice with literary advocacy and creative arts education.
