Poet Wanda Coleman passed away Friday of natural causes at the age of 67
She completed more than 20 books, won the Lenore Marshall National Poetry Prize in 1999 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. But Coleman, who was born and raised in Watts, was often considered the "unofficial" poet laureate of Los Angeles. She used the city often as a backdrop for her take on identity, race and politics
For more on her impact and influence we're joined by Tom Lutz of UC Riverside and the editor in chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books