{"title":"Poetry--African American \u0026 Black","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"small-lives-poems","title":"Small Lives: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003ePoetry, yes. Superheroes, yes. This is a graphic novel in verse. Gary Jackson's work is inspired by Afro-futurism.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003esmall lives \u003c\/i\u003erenders a graphic novel in verse form. Jackson creates his own metropolis, featuring original and remixed superheroes who are othered for more than just their skin and are subsequently and simultaneously celebrated, destroyed, and desired, illustrating what it means to reside in a country's brutal imagination.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0826368425\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780826368423\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Jackson, Gary, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Unm Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unm Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Sep 2025)","offer_id":45657240895685,"sku":"9780826368423","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780826368423.jpg?v=1768889877"},{"product_id":"excuse-me-as-i-kiss-the-sky","title":"Excuse Me as I Kiss the Sky","description":"\u003ci\u003eExcuse Me As I Kiss The Sky\u003c\/i\u003e is the third installment of the Rudy Francisco poetry collection. With every book, the author utilizes various tools and methods to excavate his experiences and find poetry in everyday things. Rudy believes that poetry can be found in our immediate surroundings at any given moment and poignantly includes this idea as the foundation of his work. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this book, Rudy Francisco bravely explores poetic forms such as the contrapuntal, golden shovel and the ode, while offering explanations and his approach to using the aforementioned. \u003ci\u003eExcuse Me As I Kiss The Sky\u003c\/i\u003e is meant to inspire its readers, expose them to different avenues of approaching the act of writing poetry and invites them to try it for themselves. Francisco takes the nuances of the craft that feel esoteric and breaks them down so the average person can engage and enjoy poetry in ways that feel familiar. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe author uses this book to further explore subjects such as love, heartbreak, identity and healing. Rudy takes feelings, turns them into vehicles that tell stories, exhibits how multifaceted the human experience is and how connected all of us actually are. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eExcuse Me As I Kiss The Sky\u003c\/i\u003e is insightful, commanding but also comforting in a myriad of ways.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1638340773\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781638340775\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Francisco, Rudy, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Button Poetry\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Button Poetry","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2023)","offer_id":45658019922117,"sku":"9781638340775","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781638340775.jpg?v=1768897229"},{"product_id":"be-holding-a-poem","title":"Be Holding: A Poem","description":"Winner, 2021 PEN\/Jean Stein Award Winner, 2021 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry Winner, 2022 Indiana Author Award in Poetry \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBe Holding\u003c\/i\u003e is a love song to legendary basketball player Julius Erving--known as Dr. J--who dominated courts in the 1970s and '80s as a small forward for the Philadelphia '76ers, as well as over his career in both the NBA and ABA. But this book-length poem is more than just an ode to a magnificent athlete. Through a kind of lyric research, or lyric meditation, Ross Gay connects Dr. J's famously impossible move from the 1980 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers to pick-up basketball and the flying Igbo and the Middle Passage, to photography and surveillance and state violence, to music and personal histories of flight and familial love. \u003ci\u003eBe Holding\u003c\/i\u003e wonders how the imagination, or how our looking, might make us, or bring us, closer to each other. How our looking might make us reach for each other. And might make us be reaching for each other. 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It brings together poems from Knight's previously published books and a section of new poems.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0822953781\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780822953784\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Knight, Etheridge, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: University of Pittsburgh Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Pittsburgh Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Dec 1986)","offer_id":45660005662917,"sku":"9780822953784","price":17.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780822953784.jpg?v=1768916657"},{"product_id":"selected-poems-3","title":"Selected Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e is the classic volume by the distinguished and celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. 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She's been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a courageous activist who has spoken out on the sensitive issues that touch our national consciousness, including race and gender, social justice, protest, violence in the home and in the streets, and why black lives matter. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of America's most celebrated poets looks inward in this powerful collection, a rumination on her life and the people who have shaped her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs energetic and relevant as ever, Nikki now offers us an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. In \u003cem\u003eA Good Cry, \u003c\/em\u003e she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents' marriage and her early life. She pays homage to the people who have given her life meaning and joy: her grandparents, who took her in and saved her life; the poets and thinkers who have influenced her; and the students who have surrounded her. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou's death in 2014.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified -- and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts.\" -- \u003cem\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0062399462\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062399465\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Giovanni, Nikki\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: William Morrow \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Oct 2018)","offer_id":45936762781893,"sku":"9780062399465","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780062399465.jpg?v=1772850512"},{"product_id":"stages-poems","title":"Stages: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Tramaine Suubi is a visionary love poet, and \u003cem\u003estages \u003c\/em\u003emakes a singular life feel vaster than the life cycle of a star. In this poetry of dissolution and re-making, of multiplications and expansion, embodied tenderness is a force capable of moving us \"beyond the binary.\" As it journeys from personhood to \"people-hood,\" Suubi's music shimmers and flashes and connects.\" \u003c\/strong\u003e-- \u003cstrong\u003eMary Szybist, \u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eNational Book Award winner for\u003cem\u003e Incarnadine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"This book presents a young person seeing the world with fresh, yet discerning eyes. In \u003cem\u003estages\u003c\/em\u003e, Suubi is seeking centeredness in an unstable world. From personal journeys throughout and between continents, Suubi asserts the freedom to be themselves, on their own terms. \u003cem\u003estages\u003c\/em\u003e is a thoughtful, rigorous and heartfelt collection of a loving voice.\" -- Tracie Morris, author of \u003cem\u003ehuman\/nature\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Tramaine Suubi's newest book, \u003cem\u003eStages\u003c\/em\u003e, crafts new orbits to the oldest questions. As the poems circumnavigate homecomings, desires, and reclamations, the relay baton of sound and syntax passes seamlessly, always ready to hand the reader a line of true substance, a line of unexpected grace, a line of hard-won delight. Suubi insists on playfulness as a site of maturation and love as a protest against multiple erasures. And like celestial bodies, these poems can transfix, predict, and guide one through both dying and newborn light, reminding the reader, \"civility is a performance you savage in your dreams.\" -- Steven Leyva, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Opposite of Cruelty\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"So rarely do we come across a book like s\u003cem\u003etages\u003c\/em\u003e, which mirrors how a day, an hour, a moment--can engage every layer of our being. This collection will dazzle you with swirling musings which authentically ground and unground our desires, histories, and identities.\" -- Marisa Tirado, author of \u003cem\u003eSelena Didn't Know Spanish Either\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Once, we are looking at a gaggle of geese punctuating the gradient sky, meanwhile, elsewhere we are in Kampala, in Suubi's poem. Suubi navigates between the outwardly observed and the deeply internal, and the readers are at a crossroads, sometimes witnessing, other times noting the mechanical dance of our small, exiled lives. Suubi's sharp, often unblinking, gaze renders each detail with striking precision. What a collection, what a book, what a way to reinvent what African poetry can do, what it will do. A second coming that deserves all the praise for its excellence.\" -- Adedayo Agarau, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Years of Blood\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCritically acclaimed writer Tramaine Suubi follows up her debut \u003cem\u003ephases, \u003c\/em\u003e with \u003cem\u003estages\u003c\/em\u003e. This powerful meditation, inspired by Lucille Clifton, focuses on choices and changes throughout life, from Yellow Dwarf to Protostar.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this breathtaking companion poetry collection, inspired by the evolution of our brightest star, Tramaine Suubi offers poems alluding to the history of how it came to be and its effects on each human life. 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As sharp and outspoken as ever, she returns with this profound book of social justice poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and racism, celebrate Black culture and Black lives, and give readers an unfiltered look into her own experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMake Me Rain, \u003c\/i\u003e she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her Black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant voice in African American poetry with poems such as \"I Come from Athletes\" and \"Rainy Days\"--calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as \"Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)\" and \"When I Could No Longer\"--her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in \u003ci\u003eMake Me Rain\u003c\/i\u003e pierce the heart and nourish the soul. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified -- and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts.\" -- \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this profound collection, Giovanni masterfully weaves the personal and the political, the timely and the timeless. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Legendary Voice: \u003c\/b\u003e After more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni remains as sharp and outspoken as ever, delivering a powerful and unapologetic celebration of Black culture and heritage.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Personal and Political: \u003c\/b\u003e Giovanni fearlessly confronts the national sins of racism and white nationalism while also sharing deeply personal elegies for the family who saved her from an abusive home.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTimely Social Commentary: \u003c\/b\u003e With unflinching clarity, these poems take on everything from segregation to contemporary politics, reaffirming Giovanni's place as a uniquely relevant American voice.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eInspirational Verse: \u003c\/b\u003e A stirring and resonant collection that challenges readers on injustice while ultimately piercing the heart and nourishing the soul with poems of love, family, and resilience.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0062995294\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062995292\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Giovanni, Nikki\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: William Morrow \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Sep 2021)","offer_id":45937286185157,"sku":"9780062995292","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780062995292.jpg?v=1772856827"},{"product_id":"shade-is-a-place","title":"Shade Is a Place","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom National Poetry Series winner MaKshya Tolbert, a \"startlingly original debut\" (Maggie Millner) that meanders toward possibilities of arboreal relief among entanglements of place, property, and urban planning in Charlottesville, Virginia\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eShade is a place\u003c\/i\u003e meanders east-west along Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, seeking \"a Black sense of place\" at the pace of stressed shade and street trees, the mall's architectural history, and the speaker's ongoing questions and reflections. 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Her poems are written from the heart and learned by the reader's heart.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1451639759\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781451639759\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Hooks, Bell\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Atria Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Atria Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Feb 2011)","offer_id":46079884951749,"sku":"9781451639759","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781451639759.jpg?v=1776032491"},{"product_id":"scorched-earth-poems","title":"Scorched Earth: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003e2025 National Book Award Finalist\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ehe striking sophomore poetry collection from the award-winning author of the \"beautiful, vulnerable, honest\" (Ross Gay, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author) \u003ci\u003eI Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDive between the borders of ruined and radical love with this lyrical poetry collection that explores topics as expansive as divorce, the first Black Bachelorette, and the art world. 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Every book is better than the last.\" --Danez Smith, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eA collection of the finest new and selected poems from one of the most groundbreaking voices in contemporary poetry, a \"masterful performer and poet of voices too little heard\" (Poetry Foundation).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Intentions of Thunder\u003c\/i\u003e gathers, for the first time, the essential work from across Patricia Smith's decorated career. Here, Smith's poems, affixed with her remarkable gift of insight, present a rapturous ode to life. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future. 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Gathering hits from six extraordinary collections, \u003cem\u003eBe Easy\u003c\/em\u003e showcases his singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Traversing the Midwest from Indianapolis to Chicago, new poems explore the twitchy unease of unintentional migration and economic instability as the country faces a future every bit as unsettling and circus-like as parking lot carnivals of the poet's childhood. Selections from \u003cem\u003eMixology\u003c\/em\u003e (2008)--\"a post-soul tour de force\" (Kevin Young)--reverberate with the rhythm of '80s hip-hop, while \"revelatory\" (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) odes from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist \u003cem\u003eThe Big Smoke\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) reimagine the legacy of prizefighter Jack Johnson and transcendent poems from \u003cem\u003eMap to the Stars\u003c\/em\u003e (2017) brim with cosmic jazz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Matejka's smooth lyricism flows into a singular, indispensable collection of memories lost and found again. Tracing the continuum of a \"rocket-powered\" (Campbell McGrath) writer, \u003cem\u003eBe Easy\u003c\/em\u003e affirms Matejka as one of the most exciting voices of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1324097507\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781324097501\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Matejka, Adrian\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (May 2026)","offer_id":46099740786885,"sku":"9781324097501","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781324097501.jpg?v=1776644420"},{"product_id":"promise-threat-poems","title":"Promise\/Threat: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003eAfter storming the scene with \u003ci\u003eStereo(TYPE), \u003c\/i\u003e the PEN America Award-winning poet makes his highly anticipated return--with a virtuosic sophomore collection that plunges the reader into the tenebrous realm between dreams and reality and firmly establishes him as an essential voice in American poetry.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I'm coming to you live,\" Jonah Mixon-Webster announces early on in \u003ci\u003ePromise\/Threat, \u003c\/i\u003e \"from the corner of Shit Blvd. and Out o' Luck St. \/ with my monkey paws.\" So begins a three-part journey of a troubled rebirth, one that ushers the reader through all the torment of a Dantean comedy as it climbs unsteadily from darkness to light, navigating an internalized landscape that evokes the Flint, Michigan, of the poet's youth. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the long central sequence, \"Territory,\" Mixon-Webster sets the reader in a mirror hall of dreams, where one's nemesis (or one's self) is always lurking around the corner. Violences of the waking life trickle into the narrator's sleep as he flees from vision to vision, \"picking fruit in one dream and eating it in the next.\" In the book's third and final section, as the poet begins to wake, he finds that the \"real poem is the life I'm writing.\" Mixon-Webster's musings turn to love and the often-destructive desires it provokes in us as he grapples with how to carry the burden of a past that threatens to sabotage the future. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese are seeking, supple poems whose forms adapt to contain their transfigured images. What emerges in this daring second collection is a surreal and haunting portrait of life in modern America, where pitfalls hide in every promise.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 059380306X\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780593803066\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Mixon-Webster, Jonah\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Mar 2026)","offer_id":46099750813893,"sku":"9780593803066","price":26.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780593803066.jpg?v=1776644459"},{"product_id":"the-throne-of-the-third-heaven-of-the-nations-millennium-general-assembly","title":"The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly","description":"No description available\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0060926961\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780060926960\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Johnson, Denis\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Harper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2025)","offer_id":46099784597701,"sku":"9780060926960","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780060926960.jpg?v=1776644728"},{"product_id":"hardheaded-weather-new-and-selected-poems","title":"Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom Cornelius Eady, one of America's most engaging voices, comes an exciting collection of poetry that at once delineates the arc of the poet's universe and highlights the range of his considerable talents.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCornelius Eady's poems show him in full control of his considerable talents and displaying a rich maturity as he enters midlife. His poems are sly, unsentimental, and witty, full of truths that are intimate and profound. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eHardheaded Weather\u003c\/i\u003e ranges widely, reflecting the new found responsibilities Eady has assumed as he transitions from urban renter to nonplussed rural homeowner, as well as the sobering influence of war and the intimation of his own mortality. Yet even at his angriest, the poet has always had a depth of compassion rare in our polarized age, with a sense of humor that is both sophisticated and demotic. These poems will resonate deeply. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs exciting as the new poems are, his selected earlier poems dazzle, too, as they demonstrate the arc of Cornelius Eady's maturation and the originality of his voice. Taken together, \u003ci\u003eHardheaded Weather\u003c\/i\u003e forms a moving--and sometimes searing--testament to the power of poetry.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0399155112\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780399155116\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Eady, Cornelius\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"G.P. 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It considers how we fashion identities through formative relationships with history and community, with our ancestors, our children, and ourselves. These connections underscore our ties to nature and emphasize humanity's seemingly inevitable turn to violence. For instance, a meditation on the white-headed woodpecker connects to knowledge of Black miners in nineteenth century Roslyn, Washington, and sparks an understanding of white-headed woodpeckers as \"arboreal miners\" with \"a patch of red feathers \/ on the back of their crowns\" that the speaker observes and \"can't help but see blood.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis collection ranges in setting from antebellum Georgia to twenty-first century Alaska, from the Wild West to the Asteroid Belt in the twenty-fifth century. The exploration of people in relation to place excavates the complexity of heritage and privilege, fatherhood amid environmental collapse, and the inherited memories, abilities, hardships, and love that link Black people living centuries apart. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaken together, these poems, queries, and possibilities paint a sensibility that strives to integrate itself into the known world, and through that world into an imagined future. 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While \u003ci\u003eCommon Sense\u003c\/i\u003e is celebrated as a cornerstone of American democracy, Thomas Paine's arguments for \"total freedom and equality\" were written exclusively for white men--completely excluding women and people of color from his vision of liberation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough innovative erasure poetry, Smith transforms this foundational document into a mirror reflecting both our nation's incomplete promises and today's ongoing struggle for true equality. By making Paine's original text translucent and highlighting specific words, she reveals new meanings that speak to the experiences of ALL Americans--those who were silenced in 1776 and those still fighting for recognition today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis creative reinterpretation arrives at a crucial moment--just as America approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026. 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I know \u003cbr\u003enothing rises that doesn't \u003cbr\u003eknow how to already. \u003cbr\u003eIn my ears, only the clubbed \u003cbr\u003efoot of routine, no voices, no \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eclatter of dreams: but I saw \u003cbr\u003ewhat I saw \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEven in his first book of poems, the deep contradictions in Carl Phillips's work are already pronounced. Here is a subtle poet, attuned to the simple honesty of everyday speech, and yet steeped in classical allusion. Life here is quiet, yet burning with anger and unavoidable desire. Offering intimate statements of passion and yet retaining a private withholding, these poems take as their primary subject the body--growing, aging, loving--and spirit that fills the flesh. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen \u003ci\u003eIn the Blood \u003c\/i\u003ewas selected for the 1992 Morse Poetry Prize, Carl Phillips was a high-school Latin teacher. 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The lessons aren't always easy, and some relationships won't survive, but the love lives on in the memories, prayers, and poems that fill these pages. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This is for her, this is for them, this is for you.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798881605322\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Chapata, Billy\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Andrews McMeel Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46100208910533,"sku":"9798881605322","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798881605322.jpg?v=1776648334"},{"product_id":"she-outgrew-the-wound","title":"She Outgrew the Wound","description":"\u003cb\u003eA heartfelt return to form for veteran poet r.h. 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The later flowering of the still influential Black Arts Movement is represented here with breadth and originality, including many long out-of-print or hard-to-find poems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHere are all the significant movements and currents: the nineteenth-century Francophone poets known as Les Cenelles, the Chicago Renaissance that flourished around Gwendolyn Brooks, the early 1960s Umbra group, and the more recent work of writers affiliated with Cave Canem and the Dark Room Collective. Here too are poems of singular, hard-to-classify figures: the enslaved potter David Drake, the allusive modernist Melvin B. Tolson, the Cleveland-based experimentalist Russell Atkins. This Library of America volume also features biographies of each poet and notes that illuminate cultural references and allusions to historical events.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1598536664\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781598536669\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Young, Kevin\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Library of America\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Library of America","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Oct 2020)","offer_id":46291835748549,"sku":"9781598536669","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781598536669.jpg?v=1780113155"},{"product_id":"the-collected-poetry-of-nikki-giovanni-american-classics-edition-1968-1998","title":"The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni American Classics Edition: 1968-1998","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom one of America's most cherished and celebrated poets, a landmark collection of Nikki Giovanni's early work from the transformational years of 1968-1998!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Nikki Giovanni is one of our national treasures.\"--Gloria Naylor\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. This timeless classic brings readers Nikki Giovanni's poems from her books \u003ci\u003eBlack Feeling Black Talk; Black Judgement; Re: Creation; My House; The Women and the Men; Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day; \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Those Who Ride the Night Winds.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and controversial artists of our time. More than 50 years later, Giovanni still stands as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStirring, provocative, and resonant, these poems heralded the arrival of an indelible literary voice that resounds to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA BEAUTIFUL PACKAGE WITH FLAPS: \u003c\/b\u003e Featuring French flaps and a unique vivid cover design, each book in the collection is published as a deluxe trade paperback that is a part of a stunning series look.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eHARPER COLLINS AMERICAN CLASSICS: \u003c\/b\u003e This series includes timeless novels, poetry, children's books, and groundbreaking nonfiction that has shaped American thought, literature, and identity across generations.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eAMERICA'S PUBLISHER: \u003c\/b\u003e Since its founding in 1817, no American publisher has been so entwined in the history of American letters. Our books enrich, challenge, and defined the American spirit.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eAMERICA 250: \u003c\/b\u003eThe HarperCollins American Classics arrive in time for America's 250th anniversary celebrations. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0063482258\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780063482258\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Giovanni, Nikki\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: William Morrow \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (May 2026)","offer_id":46291845578949,"sku":"9780063482258","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780063482258.jpg?v=1780113170"},{"product_id":"a-poem-for-evangeline-other-songs","title":"A Poem for Evangeline \u0026 Other Songs","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith this, his 17th book and his 4th poetry collection, Kevin Powell further cements his legacy as one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. A Poem for Evangeline, And Other Songs, is a series of tender and skillfully constructed love letters to his wife, yes. But it is also a sensitive and sacred poetic manifesto for humanity, for America. Be it hate or violence in all forms, mental health, family, history, childhood traumas, the meaning of manhood, or his profound longing for peace, Powell channels forebears like Lucille Clifton, like Federico García Lorca, like the purple cadences and skylight hues of our kinfolk. The result is a poetry book for our times, yes, but also for the times not yet imagined.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798218824440\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Powell, Kevin\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Get Fresh Books Publishing, a Nonprofit Corp\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Get Fresh Books Publishing, a Nonprofit Corp","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Apr 2026)","offer_id":46291902169285,"sku":"9798218824440","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798218824440.jpg?v=1780113654"},{"product_id":"wheatley-at-250-black-women-poets-re-imagine-the-verse-of-phillis-wheatley-peters","title":"Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis new collection celebrates the 250th anniversary of \u003cem\u003ePoems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)\u003c\/em\u003e, by gathering the voices of 20 Black female poets to reimagine the work of Phillis Wheatley Peters, both America's first Black poet and the iconic literary ancestor for a new generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u0026gt;\u0026gt;\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This book is a treasure!... a blessing and a balm.\" -Camille Dungy, author of \u003cem\u003eSoil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This extraordinary anthology by Danielle Legros Georges and Artress Bethany White asks us to approach her [Wheatley's] work in conversation with a group of our nation's most ambitious poets...\" -Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, President and Executive Director, Academy of American Poets\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u0026gt;\u0026gt;\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCONTRIBUTORS: Tracy K. Smith, Gabrielle Civil, Danielle Legros Georges, Florence Ladd, Janice A. Lowe, Kiki Petrosino, Aracelis Girmay, Donika Kelly, Tara Betts, L'Merchie Frazier, Yalie Saweda Kamara, Tsitsi Jaji, Shara McCallum, Mahogany L. Browne, Pamela Mordecai, Rosamond S. King, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Sharan Strange, Artress Bethany White, Evie Shockley\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798986243016\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Legros Georges, Danielle, White, Artress Bethany\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Pangyrus\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Pangyrus","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Dec 2023)","offer_id":46291902398661,"sku":"9798986243016","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798986243016.jpg?v=1780113655"},{"product_id":"new-names-for-stars","title":"New Names for Stars","description":"\u003cp\u003eLen Lawson's remarkable poetry collection New Names for Stars is a journey and a companion for that journey, exploring Afrofuturism, superheroes, mental health, social justice, and beyond, with narratives ranging from personal to universal. At one moment, we're experiencing the daunting-yet-intimate vastness of the cosmos, as the poem \"slush\" instructs, \"bury me in a slush of stars. if i transition from this life to the next, light scrubbed from my eyes, call me by this name. i'm rejoining the slush that birthed me.\" Later we interface with important figures like Simone Biles, Guy Bluford, and Amanda Waller, and conclude with the poignant \"Elegy for Chadwick Boseman.\" Lawson's talent for stunningly original diction is a constant in this volume of varied textures and themes. It's impossible not to be awed by his turns of phrase, as in \"what if the universe is flesh\" when the speaker notes, \"wasn't the universe supposed \/ to be made by a voice, \/\/ the single most devastating \/ weapon to the body? \/\/ no one asked for light.\" Every poem in this collection provides readers with the gift of wisdom, opening a conversation with history both distant and near, enlightening as it delights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e--Mary Biddinger, Author of Department of Elegy and The Girl with the Black Lipstick\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798992232998\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Lawson, Len\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Lit Fox Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Lit Fox Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (May 2026)","offer_id":46291908460741,"sku":"9798992232998","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798992232998.jpg?v=1780113705"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/poetry-african-american-black.oembed?page=2","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}