Renée Good described herself simply as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” Those who loved her remembered someone whose compassion seemed to reach everyone in her orbit.
The 37-year-old mother of three was killed in Minneapolis in January when an ICE agent shot her during a federal immigration operation. Her killing sparked protests across the country and intensified scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.
But Good’s life was defined by much more than the way it ended. A graduate of Old Dominion University, she studied English and creative writing and won the school’s 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize. She loved singing, playing guitar, making art with her children, and, according to her family, editing their writing.
“Nae was the beautiful light of our family and brought joy to anyone she met,” her parents and siblings wrote after her death. They remembered her as relentlessly hopeful and someone who found joy in comforting others.
Good’s memory continues in Minneapolis, where a garden, artwork, Pride flags, and photographs mark the place where she was killed. And this fall, Old Dominion University will dedicate its annual Literary Festival to Good, taking its theme from a line in her award-winning poem: “Make Room for Wonder.”
