Don't call us dead : poems

Title:

Author:

Smith, Danez, author.

Personal Author:

Smith, Danez, author.

ISBN:

9781555977856

Physical Description:

88 pages ; 23 cm

Contents:

Dear white America -- Dinosaurs n the hood -- It won't be a bullet -- Last summer of innocence -- A note on vaseline -- A note on the phone app that tells me how far I am from other men's mouths -- and even the black guy's profile reads sorry, no black guy -- O nigga O -- ...nigga -- At the down-low house party -- Bare -- Seroconversion -- Fear of needles -- Recklessly -- Elegy with pixels and cum -- Litany with blood all over -- It began right here -- Crown -- Blood hangover -- 1 in 2 -- Every day is a funeral and a miracle -- Not an elegy -- A note on the body -- You're dead, America -- Strange dowry -- Tonight, in Oakland -- Little prayer -- Dream where every black person is standing by the ocean.

Abstract:

Smith's unflinching poetry addresses race, class, sexuality, faith, social justice, mortality, and the challenges of living HIV positive at the intersection of black and queer identity. The collection opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved on earth. "Dear White America," which Smith performed at the 2014 Rustbelt Midwest Region Poetry Slam, has as strong an impact on the page as it did on the spoken word stage. Smith's courage and hope amidst the struggle for unity in America will humble and uplift you.

Subject Term:

African American men -- Poetry.

African American men -- Violence against -- Poetry.

Gay erotic poetry.

Gay men -- Poetry.

HIV-positive men -- Poetry.

Spoken word poetry.

Transgender people -- Poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry
Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection

"[Smith's] poems are enriched to the point of volatility, but they pay out, often, in sudden joy."-- The New Yorker

Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don't Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith turns then to desire, mortality--the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood--and a diagnosis of HIV positive. "Some of us are killed / in pieces," Smith writes, "some of us all at once." Don't Call Us Dead is an astonishing and ambitious collection, one that confronts, praises, and rebukes America--"Dear White America"--where every day is too often a funeral and not often enough a miracle.