Welcome to Litsy!

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”

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#Dream
#newYearNewBooks

Im not a poetry reader, but this was a book club pick and I‘m so glad it was picked. His poems are beautiful.

These poems reflect a driven, contemplative, loving, and insightful young man before his big rap career took off. He was obviously still growing into himself when he wrote these poems. They are heartbreaking, some amateur, sweet, and even naive, but always, he was thinking about the world around him and what justice meant. I wish he'd had the chance to say more.

#poetrymatters #murder @TheSpineView

#poetrymatters #rose @TheSpineView

What strikes hardest about Tupac Shakur's writing is how inescapably young he was, how heartbreaking it is, all over again, that such youth and promise was cut down too soon. Each poem is in here 2Xs - 1st as an image of the original scribble, complete with the illustrative doodles, misspellings, & abbreviations you would expect from a teenager's notebook, & then again as a typed poem. The juxtaposition is sharp and delightful.

“You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left.”

#CuriousCovers
#Closeup

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#AuthorAMonth2021 @Soubhiville

I was a teenager when Tupac was shot, and this book put me back in a very specific timeframe while reading it.

The friendship between the three girls felt so real. I love how Woodson used Tupac's music and life as a timeline of sorts for the girls.

Another beautifully written book by this author. 💚