"Our Hope that Breathes" by Truth Thomas
(for America’s 250th year)
JULY 2026
Truth Thomas is an award-winning poet, singer-songwriter, photographer, and founder of Cherry Castle Publishing. The inaugural Poet Laureate of Howard County, Maryland, and a 2025 Howie Award winner, he received the 2013 NAACP Image Award for his Speak Water poetry collection. His work appears in more than 150 publications, including The 100 Best African American Poems (edited by Nikki Giovanni) and This Is the Honey (edited by Kwame Alexander). He is the creator of the Skinny poetry form and Editor-in-Chief of The Skinny Poetry Journal.
