Video interview with jessica Care moore coming soon. Check back shortly to watch this exclusive conversation.
Award-winning poet, publisher, and filmmaker jessica Care moore continues to break boundaries across multiple artistic disciplines. Detroit’s poet laureate has built an impressive portfolio as founder of Moore Black Press, executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, and creator of groundbreaking theatrical works. Her poetry has graced stages from the Apollo Theater to the Smithsonian, and she’s collaborated with hip-hop legends including Common, Nas, and Talib Kweli.
Moore’s latest venture into children’s literature represents another milestone in her diverse career. Her upcoming book “Your Crown Shines,” illustrated by Coretta Scott King award-winning artist Dare Coulter, emerges from a poem that caught Oprah Winfrey’s attention during a celebration for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The work exemplifies moore’s commitment to empowering young readers while maintaining her signature poetic voice.
Beyond publishing, moore continues expanding her creative reach through film, opera, and music. Her feature film “He Looked Like a Postcard” earned nominations at prestigious festivals, while her experimental opera “Wild Beauty” showcases her skills as a librettist. These projects demonstrate her evolution as an institution builder who creates opportunities for herself and other artists in Detroit’s cultural landscape.
You’re participating in a Juneteenth poetry event focused on menthol advertising in the Black community. What draws you to this cause?
I got asked by my sister Minou some months ago to be a part of this, and I’ve judged poetry contests before, but this is a poetry competition like no other. It’s really focused on getting menthol and tobacco advertisement out of the black community. So it’s about saving our babies’ lungs. They got all kinds of stuff going on with tobacco. Now we’ve got all kinds of great flavors, like fruit punch and watermelon, strawberry and mango, clearly this is not for grownups, this is appealing to a younger population.
My daddy, Tom Moore, rest in peace, would have been 101 years old this year had he lived, but died of emphysema. I spent most of my childhood pulling Kools out of his mouth and throwing away cigarettes and wanting him to stop smoking most of my life. To hear a poetry event that’s centered around a purpose on Juneteenth this way around community building and making our community be more healthy. I’m here for it.
How do people get involved or support this event?
I’m not producing the event. I’m just definitely a guest, but if you go to my Instagram page right now, jessica CARE moore on Instagram. I have promoted the event, and you could find their Instagram and also find the links to all the things. I can’t say that I’m the one that created the event, I’m just supporting it.
You wear many hats – poet, publisher, curator, filmmaker. How do you describe what you do?
It’s hard. That’s why it’s hard for me to date and hard for me to have management. All of it’s hard, but I’m an institution builder at my core, and I’m a poet, for sure. I think like a poet. I love like a poet. I write like a poet. I’m a poet. Even my film, “He Looked Like a Postcard,” I’m a filmmaker, but the film is one long poem.
That’s how I see the world, it’s through a poet’s eyes. So at my core, I’m definitely a poet that does a lot of different things. But institution building, I think, sets me apart from other artists. Early on I knew the importance of building institutions, so I built Moore Black Press Publishing, which is now Moore Black Press, Amistad/HarperCollins.
Tell us about your partnership with HarperCollins and what you’re publishing.
At this point in my career, and with my life, and with not having enough help, not having a full staff, not having lots of interns, and I need them, me and my agent, Regina Brooks, decided that we would ask, talk to HarperCollins about an imprint deal, and so that’s why Moore Black Press is distributed now by Amistad/HarperCollins. We’re putting out great black poets. We got Barbara Fant coming out in the fall, “Joy in the Belly of a Riot.” Beautiful book. She’s out of Columbus, Ohio. “Every Where Alien” is Brad Walrond’s book, gorgeous book. So, go buy poetry books.
I published Saul Williams’ first book. I published Ras Baraka’s first book of poetry, who’s the Mayor of Newark, N.J., and a dear friend. Asha Bandele’s work, and many more. I’m just getting started, it seems, with publishing.
Your children’s book “Your Crown Shines” came out June 24. How did this project come about?
So, excited about my book. This was like a dream for me. I have been wanting to get in front of children’s audiences for a long time. I’ve been admiring Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander, and Elizabeth Acevedo. “Your Crown Shines” was written and inspired by Ketanji Brown Jackson. Dare Coulter is like a goddess illustrator. She’s a Coretta Scott King award-winning illustrator.
My sister, Jotaka Eaddy, asked me to do a poem for Ketanji Brown Jackson on a Friday, she said, we got a Sunday to do your poem. I looked at the run of the show, and it said, Oprah Winfrey, I said, jessica Care moore, it said reflection, and jessica Care moore poem, and then Oprah Winfrey! I just did what I always do, and she could have not been listening, but she was. She popped on the screen, and she was like, Jessica! I need that poem. I need you to send me that poem and that was a big deal. She shared it on Oprah Daily. She quoted her favorite lines of the poem. She put it on her Instagram feed. My agent was like, so we got like five different offers for the book.
What can readers expect from the book and your upcoming tour?
When we come to my readings, we’re going to be doing crown making and writing workshops around what makes your crown shine. Because the crown is not the physical thing, but it’s really about the crown, we always walk around with our crowns, and what makes your crown distinct and different?
I start the tour June 21st, I hit the Bronx for the Bronx Book Festival. I’m going to Newark the next day, Newark, New Jersey Source of Knowledge Bookstore. Then I head out to the Bay area. I’m doing something at the Oakland Public Conservatory Music school. Then I head to L.A. July 13th is my big kickoff in Detroit at The LOVE Building. I want to do parties for the kids and celebrate literacy and celebrate poetry. I’m just not gonna sign your book, you gotta write me some poems. We’re gonna do poetry workshops, and all the things.
Your film, “He Looked Like a Postcard,” is going on tour. What’s the story behind this project?
After doing a festival run, we got nominated for Best Feature Narrative at the Miami Black Film Festival, at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. We just were at the Pan African Film Festival. I wrote it, I produced it, I raised all the money for the film, and put my own skin in the game. I learned from Spike Lee and put my own money into my film. Qasim Basir is my director.
I realized, okay wait Jessica, now, I can’t just keep doing festivals. You don’t make money doing festivals. I want to get in front of people that don’t go to festivals. So, I’m gonna, God-willing. Working on the date still with the Apollo Theater, but it’s tentatively September of this year. We’ll be kicking off a tour in theaters, doing special VIP events in every city. So, New York for sure, Apollo Theater, Philly, Atlanta, L.A. and probably Chicago. Dayton, Ohio for sure, and then we’ll end in Detroit.
It’s about a poet that comes home with her 10-year-old son, Idris, trying to find her voice again, trying to rebuild her life after leaving a relationship, which is very similar to what happened to me when I came back from Atlanta to Detroit. She gets a postcard under her door of a beautiful man. She writes a poem about it, and later the postcard goes past on a skateboard, and that is the gorgeous Tobias Truvillion. So, it’s a love story, but it’s really a self-love story.
You’re also working on an experimental opera called “Wild Beauty.” When will audiences see this?
Wild Beauty is an experimental opera. I wrote it during the pandemic, it’s a beautiful piece. Kisma Jordan, from Detroit, does something called Opera Soul, so her and I are in conversation, so it’s us with a small orchestra. I’m working with my brothers, De’Sean Jones and Jon Dixon, two wonderful young composers out of Detroit for the music.
I think Charles H. Wright wants to do it again, and I’ve workshopped it at the DSO and Charles H. Wright, they want it, and so I believe spring of 2026.
Tell us about your upcoming book “No Dead G.O.A.T.S.” and new music collaboration.
I’m writing my new book, “No Dead G.O.A.T.S.,” which is honoring the greatest of all time. The greatest city of all time is Detroit, and then I have poems from Amiri Baraka, J Dilla, and other notable figures in the book, and my daddy, who’s the daddy goat. Just playing out the idea of the goat, the sacrificial animal, and with the idea of what the greatest of all time is.
I was working on new music. I got a really beautiful single with APROPOS, really wonderful singer in our city. We have a song called “Won’t Go Away,” and it’s beautiful. He sings like David Ruffin. We have collaborated in the past, but now we’re finally recording together, so “Won’t Go Away” will be out sometime this summer. It’s like an R&B soulful beautiful exchange between me and him, and it’s gorgeous and sexy and romantic, and we’re doing a whole record just like that.
Where can people follow your work and upcoming projects?
jessica Care moore, on Instagram is the best way to find me. jessicacaremoore.org. Also follow “He Look Like a Postcard” film. Follow Moore Black Press, and follow Black WOMEN Rock! All that’s on Instagram. So, follow all those places, and you’ll find me.
