Poet Harold Green III honors Black women with new book "Black Roses"

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Poet and founder of the music collective "Flowers for the Living," Harold Green III is paying tribute to all Black women in his new book, "Black Roses: Odes Celebrating Powerful Black Women." 

With the goal of emotional equity, Green sat down with CBS News Chicago's Jamaica Ponder to discuss the importance of his work, and the powerful women who molded him.

Harold Green III: I'm a spoken word artist. I call myself a florist because through my work and my community work I've been helping people bloom and hearts bloom and planting some really good seeds all across this world through my art. And that's the way I like to look at it.

My main medium or at least the fertilizer that I use is spoken word. And I've been doing that for about 19 years now. I started when I was a senior in high school. And here I am, man. Still goin' and grownin'.

Jamaica Ponder: So you have a new book coming out…it's very anticipated, it's all over social media, celebrities are talking about it— tell us what this book is.

Harold Green III: This book is called Black Roses and it's from Harper Design, which is an imprint of HarperCollins.

It's 40 odes dedicated to powerful Black women doing' they thing right now. And it's really important to me because I think we don't talk about each other while we're here. We wait until we're gone to do all these grandiose things and celebrations.

But I think it's very important that we do it now. And I know, as humans, we're scared to do that because humans let humans down, you know?

But I wanna stand on bravery with my work and make sure that people feel that heartbeat while we're still here and feel those flowers in their hands while we're still here, you know?

Jamaica Ponder: the concept of getting your flowers…I wanna hear you talk about your grandmother and what she used to say—

Harold Green III: Yeah man, so my grandmother was a beautiful person and she wasn't really that sentimental… at least with words and things like that. I more so felt her love through her actions. She would pick us up and drop us off… I just knew what she was doing at that moment was making sure that we felt love while we were here, in the present, in that very time.

When she left, I was okay because I knew she gave me all that she could give me while she was here, you know?

Jamaica Ponder: you're really bringing that into what you're creating now. making sure that these women are being celebrated…

Harold Green III: Absolutely. I'm trying to create emotional equity for Black women

Jamaica Ponder: What does that look like to you?

Harold Green III: To me, it's been centuries degrading, pushing Black women to the back of the line, taking what they made popular and commoditizing that and making that popular. And it's their time to hear that they are the ones… and if we don't create that balance emotionally, then we've failed as a society.

So as an artist, this is my opportunity to use my platform to bring some type of emotional equity to black women.

Jamaica Ponder: How did you decide what odes you were going to write? Did they just kind of come to you? Did you make a list? What's your process like?

Harold Green III: Yeeeeahhh, we had a whole list, man. It was a tough process, I'll tell you that. It was a tough process because my heart is huge and it started with like 100 women.

But the thing is, my goal and dream is to write volumes of this. So we, my editor and I, we went through a process of trimming it down. It was really a lot more her than me because it was difficult for me. My nose was too close to the page, so I relied on her a lot to kinda help me trim the list down., And once we got down to the 40, you know, I couldn't go wrong with anybody that I chose.

Jamaica Ponder: and it was received very well. it blew up on the internet. How is that for you?

Harold Green III: It's been beautiful man, because really what it shows me, it's a testament to what I was telling you earlier about form to sentiment. You know when you have women like Ava DuVernay and Tracee Ellis Ross and Robin Roberts– all these high profile, big-name individuals– Tell you that they've never received something like this, received a gift like this. That tells you that this is really as unique as you thought it was.

Harold Green III: And necessary, it's necessary. I'm tryna create a different language for how we speak about Black women and that takes heart. Because I think the language has been a little lopsided like I said before. And I want this language and this syntax to last beyond these pages and go beyond these pages and start new conversations. And I think that's being felt by these women because when you're reaching them and touching them in that way, that means something new is happening. You know? And that's what I'm excited about.

Harold Green III: We have enough of the negativity. We talk about it all the time. We obviously have been stamped and trademarked as… You know as soon as you get off the plane you're gonna get shot. And there's so much more that happens in this city. And I use those opportunities to spread that.

I think as a poet it's my job to put form to sentiment. And we have so many feelings in this city, we have so much beauty that happens… It is truly a world-class city. So when I get the opportunity to speak about it I want you to know how much good is going on. And not in a way that is coving up the dirt, but it's in a way that's making sure that from the dirt, flowers bloom.