Author: Idris Goodwin
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904159
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 83
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Book Description
These Are The Breaks is the debut essay collection of NEA award-winning playwright, HBO Def Poet, and critically acclaimed “indie” rapper, Idris Goodwin. Diverse in scope and wickedly satirical, Goodwin’s poetic essays sample race, class, and culture, transcending the page with hip-hop musicality. A rhythmic blend of biting wit and break-beat poetry, Goodwin’s prose pulses with purpose. Remixing broken dreams and distorted legacies, Goodwin cross-fades past and present, personal and political: Motown’s last vinyl factory juxtaposes against Bronx rap legends battling in open-air arenas; Chicago’s Public School system contrasts against Santa Fe’s tourism industry; an Egyptian child drowns in the Dead Sea as Nat Turner sprints across Death Valley. These Are The Breaks is the literary mixtape of our cacophonous times. These Are The Breaks creates a new literature entirely fresh, authentic and important. Essays from one of hip-hop’s deftest public intellectuals contributing to the fields of prose, creative memoir, race theory, and music history. -Kevin Coval, “Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica) Street smart, culturally sophisticated, ironic, and iconoclastic Idris Goodwin is one of the most talented and multifaceted young artists working today. His work, like the best art practices, helps us to see what we thought was obvious in a new and different way. -Calvin Forbes, “The Shine Poems,” (A) refreshing... powerful and down-to-earth voice. -National Public Radio
Author: Andrea Gibson
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904892
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 71
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Book Description
Four-time Denver Grand Champion, Pushcart Prize nominee, and winner of the 2008 Women of the World Poetry Slam, Andrea Gibson’s dynamic and energetic first book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, challenges us to not only read, but to react. Hauntingly vivid, the poems march through a soldier's lingering psychological wounds, tackle the curious questions of school children on the meaning of "hate", and tangle with a lover's witty and vibrant description of longing. Gibson's poems deconstruct the current political climate through stunning imagery and careful crafting. With the same velocity, the poignant and vacillating love poems sweep the air out of the room. It’s word-induced hypoxia. Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns whispers with a bold and unforgettable internal voice rich with the kind of questioning that inspires action.
Author: Anis Mojgani
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 193891225X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 96
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Book Description
World renowned performer and top-selling author and two-time National Slam Poetry Champion, Anis Mojgani has combed through out-of-print editions to put together Songs From Under the River, a best-of collection for his third Write Bloody release. Popular poems (Some with over 200,000 "Likes" on YouTube) such as "Direct Orders", "Shake the Dust", "Here Am I" and more, are collected here alongside lost poems, favorite poems and new unpublished works. The book showcases what audiences have come to expect from Anis—uplifting words, playful surrealism, and the journey through imagination. Songs From Under the River allows fans and new readers alike the chance to follow the trajectory of Anis' development, themes, and style of work over his 15 year career.
Author: Miles Walser
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1938912179
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 65
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Book Description
Miles Walser unearths the concept of the binary in his long-awaited first poetry collection. While Walser's lionhearted deconstruction of gender tackles trans identity in a way no living poet has before, he also dismantles other alleged dichotomies such as loneliness and introversion, softness and rage, mathematics and art. He acknowledges the existence of all these 'opposites' and their place inside the author. Walser bares so much of his many-hued self that the reader can't help but turn inwards. The reader does not simply watch the author bloom in these poems but the open-minded reader is bound to bloom also.
Author: Brian S. Ellis
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904132
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 82
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Book Description
Brian S. Ellis' second book, Yesterday Won't Goodbye, explores the author’s wild origins and punk rock Americana in powerful poetic form. Brian Stephen Ellis is borne of Gelfling and gutter punk. Unwashable stain ...His poems speak with an unbridled urgency yet come to you patient, coy, brimming with wisdom-and acutely aware of their own necessity. Read these poems. You've never been so alive." -Jeanann Verlee, "Racing Hummingbirds" ...Ellis expertly shifts between free verse poetry and creative non-fiction, consistently producing work that is captivating and original, all while having one of the most dynamic, affective, and unapologetically raw live performances anywhere. -Jared Paul, "Prayers For Atheist"
Author: Robbie Q. Telfer
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904930
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 63
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Book Description
In Spiking the Sucker Punch, Robbie Q. Telfer's first published collection, the author profiles the modern comedian from the inside out - starting with the innards and moving toward a damaged laughter. His work blends surrealism and narrative, bending grammar and expectations along the way. These pieces interrogate identity, place, and lead the reader to a much higher understanding of bears. This gloriously bellowed lyrical and linguistic chaos, this ‘mess of crossed wires and mixed seagulls,’ will make your status quo ache, your perceptions implode, your horizons widen and shatter. -Patricia Smith, “Blood Dazzler” Robbie Q, our dazzling shooting star sparking the gritty Chicago heavens, crackling with the surprising and contradictory rhythms of life on the run and in the heat. Keep on, Brother Q, dance the dialectic, your wild inspired unruly convergence and conspiracy. -Bill Ayers, activist/educator/author In Spiking the Sucker Punch, Robbie Q. Telfer rocks out a bestiary of antic poetics all his own. In his open and generous hands, speech acts zoom in and out of our collective desire to live and love. You will feel alive again reading it. -Daniel Nester, “How to Be Inappropriate”
Author: Derrick Brown
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904353
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 97
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Book Description
I Love You Is Back is the second collection of work from this internationally celebrated poet, spanning 2004-2006. It includes such popular works such as ‘The Victory Explosions,” “All Distortion, All the Time,” “St. Marks,” and “The Last Poem about Anne Sexton.” I love Derrick Brown for the surprise of one word waking up next to another. One moment tender, funny or romantic, the next, visceral, ironic and revelatory - here is the full chaos of life. An amazing talent. -Janet Fitch, Author of White Oleander A wit as sharp as Sedaris, a sensibility as poignant as Sexton, Brown manages to blur the lines between poet and cult writer with remarkable ease and grace. - Anthem Magazine Derrick Brown is one of the greatest contemporary poets. Done. I always keep him on my radar. -Sage Francis, Hip-Hop Artist
Author: Buddy Wakefield
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1949342239
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
A Choir of Honest Killers, Buddy Wakefield's first new book of prose and poetry in eight years, is an episodic novel exploring his creative climb out of the gritty underbelly of anger and shame, into the dissolution of tragedy addiction and the unmistakable clearing ahead. Having toured the world performing poetry for the last eighteen years, navigating the blunt loneliness of life on the road and a rotating cast of unlikely antagonists, Buddy keenly unpacks topics like the intense overcompensation of his masculinity, growing up terribly queer in the south, the detriments of public shame, a toxic fear of intimacy and the devastation of a failed major relationship. Wakefield revs up for his relay race to the light with refreshing humor and insight by finding meditation as the love of his life, accepting bliss and learning to let go. While the poetry in A Choir of Honest Killers undeniably throws plenty of insightful punches, it's the through-story about moving from devastation to frequent serendipity that gives the book pace. But it's worth noting, as Wakefield writes, “Perfect probably isn't what you think it is.” Wakefield is ultimately catapulted through collective misery, landing in a sustainably joyful life governed by awareness, equanimity and a constant thorough understanding of impermanence. A Choir of Honest Killers is the result of a lifetime of intense work, fervent seeking and largely takes aim at an exodus from tragedy addiction, into the transmutation of his self-admitted density.
Author: Derrick Brown
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1935904868
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 93
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Book Description
Hello teachers! We know you work hard. Besides ninjas, you have the hardest job in the world. Between the teaching, the testing, the grading, and the nurturing it’s difficult to seek out new materials for your classroom. We are here to help. As poets and teachers, we know the power of the spoken word in the classroom. All you have to do is attend a youth slam or find a clip of one online and you will see the positive impact modern poetry has on our young people. It is able to engage students from any background in a way that classical poetry simply cannot touch. A complaint we’ve heard from many teachers is that they would love to use spoken word in their classrooms but they are afraid of getting in trouble with rough language and themes. So behold! We asked some of the best contemporary spoken word and slam poets to give us poems that would be appropriate for the classroom. This means you will not have to sift through this book with a highlighter to try and find the F’s and the S’s and the B’s and the Z’s. We’ve provided poems from national slam champs, world slam champs, fellow teachers, and poets we feel are the best of what’s around. We’ve also included some amazing lessons in its companion book for the teacher, sold separately.
Author: Seema Reza
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1949342034
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 93
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Book Description
A Constellation of Half-Lives is a collection of poems that attempt to reconcile the crisis of living on a collapsing planet with the unreasonable joy of loving and the pleasure of being alive. With careful precision and an exquisite eye for detail, poet Seema Reza examines what it means to be a mother, a daughter, and an American in a time of war. Through second-person poems she questions whether the beauty of this world outweighs its fragility and risk.
