Welcome to Litsy!

Killer TITLES to these poems (re “Ode to Fried Chicken‘s Appearance on Scandal,” “Why the Jive Bird Sings,” “Two White Girls in the African Braid Shop on Marcy and Fulton”). Prose poems are faves, the insistent, sometimes rambling arguments on Black bodies, female desire, art and resistance, bad moods. Playing with form (tests, investigations, questionnaires). P90 “The gap in Angela Davis‘s teeth speaks to the gap in James Baldwin‘s teeth.” 2019

"It is possible that in the dark slumbering of their unconscious, the White imagines that the only remedy for fear is death."
-"Toward a New Theory of Negro Propaganda"

"For example, the Negro obviously understands how the talking heads of reality TV stars are essentially a manifested rendering of the Greek chorus; how fault is assembled episode by episode; how it matters who gets named what."
-"Toward a New Theory of Negro Propaganda"

"My body is an argument I didn't start."
-"And Cold Sunset"

My favorite of her collections.

This started out with a bang and quickly fizzled out for me. I‘d put it between a pan and a so-so.

Book 126/165 4/9/19

Started off a little rough for me, but ended up liking a lot of the poems.

Friday afternoon read.

I keep reading volumes of poetry because I know that the key to understanding is exposure. I‘m sure I didn‘t grasp everything Morgan Parker is saying but what I did grasp made it worth the read.

Even her acknowledgments are beautiful and lyrical.

Magical Negro #80: Brooklyn literally took my breath away.

Before you tell me: the first volume is already on hold at the library.

Through the lenses of pop culture, hip hop, and black history, Morgan Parker delivers a devastating series of poems about the current state of affairs for Black Americans. While there is humor in it, the humor is black and always sets the reader on edge. A powerful, disturbing, and important collection.

[I received an advanced e-galley of this book through #Netgalley. It is due to be released February 5, 2019.]

This was interesting. Some of the poems I really liked. Some of them were just okay. Some of them really resonated. Some of them didnt. It‘s a short collection.

Thank you Netgalley, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Since I thought I‘d be dead
by now everything
I do is fucking perfect walking wreck
reckless