Citizen: An American Lyric | 
so-soI hate to be THAT guy; the one who just doesn‘t ‘get it‘. But I don‘t think that‘s the case here.
I think something like Sealey‘s Ferguson Report is more effective in examining race. There are some enlightening moments in Citizen, especially concerning micro/macro aggressions, but overall it comes off as needlessly involuted. Rankine‘s attempt to turn poetry into essay, or perhaps the inverse, is too vague in its presentation to feel important.
pickIntense, lyrical, pithy poetry and prose, illuminating the collective impact of white supremacy on the Black experience: micro aggressions, discrimination against the pride of Serena Williams, stop and frisk police brutality, and more that leads to collective and individual trauma. Worthy of the national poetry award.
#Nonfiction2024 #RollofThunder
“Get on the ground! Get on the ground now!” And you are not the guy, and still you fit the description, because there‘s only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description. I left my client‘s house knowing I‘d be pulled over. “I must‘ve been speeding.” “You didn‘t do anything wrong. Get on the ground now!”
And you are not the guy, and still you fit the description, because there‘s only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description.
#LuckyInLove Day 3: Almost feels like a #CandleLit kind of conversation as the incomparable Claudia Rankine read her poem “What If” aloud for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature yesterday. And I was caught on camera sitting front and center taking a video - posted on the EmiratesLitFest socials.
#MotivationalMonday
1️⃣ Attend the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature from Thursday til Sunday where the likes of Claudia Rankine, Bernardine Evaristo, Rebecca Yarrow, Curtis sittenfeld are coming. Super stoked about this event, especially the Desert Stanzas on Thursday night with poets from around the world coming
2️⃣ Thea Guanzon‘s The Hurricane Wars - last few chapters to go
3️⃣ introverted extrovert (or extroverted introvert, lols)
pickToday‘s Woman of the Day is Claudia Rankine and her book Citizen, Micro and macroaggressions from every day interactions to world figures like Serena Williams & US Open, Trayvon Martin, the Jenna Six, Zinedine Zidane & the World Cup. Poetry, pain, anger, resolve.
“And where is the safest place when that place
must be someplace other than in the body?”
pick“Did you win? he asks.
It wasn‘t a match, I say. It was a lesson.”
So many lessons left to learn. And relearn. Being an ally is a lifetime journey of action, not a box to check off and a label to affix.
Read this, my #doublespin for May, before I got to my #bookspin or any of my #roll100 selections. That‘s a first! 🤷🏻♀️
pick✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
Juneteenth reading.
Each year I choose a different topic or genre to read, this year it is poetry.
Americans - especially white Americans - this weekend read, volunteer, educate yourself. Our education system didn't do the work for us. 🖤
pickI‘m not sure audio was the best way to go on this one...after completing audio I saw other reviewers mention stunning art work, and other visuals that enhanced their reading. I was also very distracted as I listened, so strike 2. Strike 3, my inflated expectations. This was a poignant collection/ jumping point for important dialogue and reflection but I wasn‘t blown away. A pick but maybe a book I‘ll need to revisit in print. #Pop21 #BLMreading
so-so⭐️⭐️⭐️
Going against popular opinions, I didn‘t love it. However, I believe that this book should be required reading for students in school instead of the classics such as Huckleberry Finn. This is a book that must be analyzed and highlights white ignorance, hidden racism, and the everyday traumas of modern racism. I had trouble grasping some of the content, but it doesn‘t mean that it‘s a bad book. This was an eye-opening and important read!
“That man who is forced each day to snatch his manhood, his identity, out of the fire of human cruelty that rages to destroy it, knows...something about himself and human life that no school on earth — and indeed, no church — can teach. He achieves his own authority, and that is unshakable.”
- October 10, 2006 / World Cup
“He said, I don‘t know what the water wanted. It wanted to show you no one would come.”
- August 29, 2005 / Hurricane Katrina
pickI saw @AnneCecilie post about Just Us where she mentioned Citizen. It was available on Hoopla and I jumped on it. I spent the morning listening to it. I loved. An excellent collection of strong, inspirational and personal experience stories. I loved it.
pickScreengrab of an incredibly moving anthology.
There is something about this passage that got to me -- how the deep divides caused by race can have the power to transcend friendship. 😢
#IntegrateYourShelf, @ChasingOm, @Emilymdxn
No rating - this is a multimedia creation and my e-reader couldn‘t convey the intended experience. But I wanted to share this work.
Its free verse evocations of the traumas of racism, from “casual” to lethal, blew me over. I‘ve seen almost every section described as THE definitive part of the work, to its obvious credit. The quote in the image could have been any of a dozen searing lines that stuck with me. I think they will stay for a long time.
pickThis book should be part of the American curriculum, pored over and processed, wept in and celebrated.
Personal, everyday, appalling and yet incredibly common racially charged situations opened my eyes and taught me, will continue to teach me, what my privilege looks like, the system I must push back against. This book feels like a full-length art museum exhibit peeled off the walls and poured into a book. A must read, without a doubt.
pickI think this should be required reading. It captures the magnitude of a lifetime of racial microagresssions and the weight of history on an individual of color.
pickA great albeit frustrating book on racial microaggressions and how people (usually white people) are casually racist towards black people through their own ignorance.
#integrateyourshelf
The top two are antiracism books I‘ve read recently, bottom 3 are on the list to read very soon. (There are others!)
Citizen is poetry, but so clear on the experience of racism, and on the impact of non-racist (rather than anti-racist) friends - it added hugely to my understanding.
SYWTTAR is really well-done, breaking down different aspects of systemic racism, combined with the author‘s own experience.
pickI think I will re-read this gem every few years and every few years, I will love it even more.
Today‘s #Recommendsday is a book of poetry. Check it out, read it, listen to it on audiobook (excellent in any format)
#BLM
#BLMReadingList
pickWritten in 2014, this book could have been written this month. Through poems, prose, and art pieces, the book covers everything from being pulled over by police to how Serena Williams is treated at the highest levels of tennis. The most resonant page is an RIP list of Black people killed, and the list goes on with places for future names, who are sadly added to in the reader‘s mind to show those killed since this book was published.
A powerful book about the daily toll of facing racism. The anxiety, the long-term effects, the doubt. Did you just say, did you just do? The constant doubt. Because just getting along shouldn‘t be an ambition.
pickI read this back in 2017 and at the time thought it would be even more powerful on audiobook...so I put it in as a recommendation at my Overdrive library. And now 3 years late, they acquired 2 copies of it. My request must have been early on, because it checked out automatically to me, with a waiting list after me. Timely of course, which I‘m guessing is why they purchased it now. So it seemed serendipitous to revisit it now, as I re-listened⤵️
pickPerfect book for the moment. I went from 😢 to 😡 to 😢, back and forth and back and forth.
pickWow. The experience of racism through poem-prose-essays, the relentlessness of the ‘mis-speaking‘ (Did she really just say that?), the cumulative ‘little things‘ - & the long list of ‘in memory of‘s. And the friends, who leave the comments as your problem...
Really powerful &, as someone who could do more, lots to ponder.
Get the audio.
A sample: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56848/citizen-you-are-in-t...
#blackouttuesday
How to support Black publishers and bookshops (UK edition) https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/june/support-black-authors-publishers-bo...
I love this graphic of books to help us grow in anti-racism. A friend pointed out that if you have the means, consider buying from black-owned independent bookstores. I need to do some research to find some, so if you know of any, please let me know! Artwork by Jane Mount, posted on Facebook by Roger Gonzales.
This is not an easy read. It hurts on so many levels. How can people treat and be treated this way?
pickBest book I‘ve read in a long time. Her writing is captivating
Just grabbed Citizen out of the mailbox this morning, unfortunately I am so behind!! I will be finishing Robinson‘s poems today and hopefully will have it sent out tomorrow.
So sorry @mklong @Bookishthoughts @TheBookKeepers for my lateness. #lmpbc
pickWow. Deeply affecting book. It‘s weird to say you loved it, when the reason for its content is pain. Does that make sense? A gut punch & something that deserves to be read & will stay with me always. Thanks for picking this & I‘ll be sending it out this week. #lmpbc
@Bookishthoughts @mklong @HufflepuffGirl90
