Interview with Jake Adam York

The current issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review contains a short interview with Jake Adam York, author of Persons Unknown which contributes “to the dialogue surrounding the development, and launch, of the Civil Rights Movement.” Jake Adler had interviewed in in November 2012 as part of a class assignment through email. And in his introduction to the interview, Adler states, “Dr. York commemorates, and pays homage to, the tragic lives which suffered at the hands of ignorance and oppression by highlighting the simple and preposterous cause for all of the hate and violence that has endured: race. It doesn’t matter who writes this poetry, I learned, but that they write it in the first place. . . Dr. York was one of those rare, champion poets who knew what his voice was, what it needed to say and how it needed [to] say it. . . He deserves the utmost recognition and marked celebration.” In five questions, the interview discusses York’s writings, his choices in writing, and his inspirations for beginning work on Persons Unknown.