Witness: An Interview with Co-Anthologists Ari Tison and Ty Chapman

Witness: Poems to Address the Past, Present, and Future of Policing is a wide-ranging collection that sprung from a simple invitation to share stories. It includes contributions from nearly forty poets, including Ada Limón, Jason Reynolds, Erin Entrada Kelly, Danez Smith, and Amanda Gorman. It explores experiences and emotions related to policing and over-policing by various law enforcement officers and agencies, touching on everything from the slave trade to an ICE agent killing Renee Good in early 2026.

We had the great privilege of talking more about the collection with the co-anthologists Ari Tyson and Ty Chapman. Today we share some of their insights.

What was your inspiration for the book?

With both of us living in the Twin Cities, we have been personally and profoundly impacted by each police killing that has occurred here. Originally, we imagined this project as one centered around George Floyd. In the weeks and months following his murder, we saw so many people and news outlets spread misinformation and propaganda about our city. We wanted to honor Floyd’s memory and combat the spreading misinformation by centering the voices of Minnesota-based writers.

As the project developed, and we added more and more authors from around the country, we knew the scope of our project needed to widen. While terrible things have happened in Minnesota that have drawn global attention again and again, the subject of overpolicing is one that reaches so much farther than our own Twin Cities. Working with our editorial team, Carol Hinz and Shaina Olmanson, we decided to instead create an anthology concerned with the past, present, and future of policing around the world.

So, the inspiration for this work was the memory of George Floyd, and the countless atrocities committed by armed forces overpolicing communities everywhere.

What was a particular joy while working on this project?

One of the most joyful and satisfying parts of this whole project was working collaboratively as co-anthologists. In particular, we recall having a meeting in one of the Loft’s classrooms at Open Book in Minneapolis. We had recently received the bulk of our poems from contributors, and we spread them all across multiple tables, using the entire classroom space.

We had this sort of jigsaw puzzle to figure out. There were so many poems, and each one interacted with the prompt differently. There were hopeful poems that centered themes of resistance, gardening, and solidarity. There were heartbreaking poems that centered horrific experiences with overpolicing. And there were poems concerned more with the history of policing and its slavecatcher origins.

We were presented with a unique challenge. We needed to sequence the poems in a way that created an emotional / narrative thread throughout the anthology. We also needed to consider the young reader’s experience and inject hope alongside grief where possible. But it was satisfying to work the puzzle out together. It was joyful to do so knowing we had complete trust in one another and the brilliant work of our contributors.

What aspect of this book are you most proud of?

We’re obviously very proud of the finished product. We have been lucky enough to include poems from such brilliant writers, and their work has come together to create a beautiful and important work of art.

We’re equally proud of the illustrations included in this project. In addition to being such a joy to collaborate with, Damon Davis is an absurdly talented visual artist. His aesthetic and eye for detail has heightened the work in ways we could only hope for in our wildest dreams. From the cover he created to each interior illustration he offered, the pieces are in conversation with the poetry within. And we use the word conversation intentionally. Rather than simply capture images already depicted by the work, Damon has created original pieces that elicit emotions in their own right.

The work to create a worthwhile anthology is abundant. Thanks to the labor of the poets, Damon, and our editorial and artistic teams, we’ve arrived at a final book that we’re so proud of.

How our vision has come to completion is in no small part thanks to Damon’s involvement.

What do you hope readers will learn or discover from reading your book?

We hope our book can give readers, young and old, an opportunity to consider perspectives that might challenge their own. Even during early conceptualizations of this project, we wanted Witness to be an intersectional conversation—an exchange of experiences and ideas around the central theme of policing.

The beauty of intersectional resistance and discourse is that such endeavors have the potential to be more than the sum of their parts. This work is collecting the lived experience, artistic eye, and ancestral knowledge of so many talented thinkers.

Our hope, in earnest, is that readers of all ages take this opportunity to learn, reflect, and witness.

Praise for Witness: Poems to Address the Past, Present, and Future of Policing

★ “The collection’s greatest strength lies in its multiplicity. The complex realities of anger, grief, exhaustion, tenderness, humor, and hope coexist without diminishing one another.”—starred, Kirkus Reviews

★ “For those seeking poetry of protest and resistance, this intense compilation offers fruitful fare. . . . Art and verse offer potent opportunities for reflection upon the social forces that influence American policing, as well as the deep anguish of the vulnerable citizens most at risk.”—starred, School Library Journal

Connect with the Co-Anthologists

Ari Tyson

Ari Tison (Bribri) is the award-winning poet and author of YA hybrid poetry & prose novel Saints of the Household (2023) with FSG/Macmillan. Saints of the Household was the winner of the 2024 Walter Dean Myers Award, the winner of the 2024 Pura Belpré Award, the winner of the Amelia Walden Award, the winner of the Américas Award, and a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the International Literacy Award. Saints was chosen as a Best Book of the Month by Amazon, and Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, New York Public Library, BCCB, and Chicago Public Library.

Ty Chapman

Ty Chapman is an award-winning author and poet based in Minnesota. He is the author of many children’s books and the poetry collection, Tartarus. Additionally, he co-edited the poetry anthology, Witness, with his friend and collaborator, Ari Tison. He has published poems through The Academy of American Poets, Water~Stone, and more.