Kevin Coval

There are a few standouts here; the opening poem by DJ Renegade is a marvel. For the most part, though, this is a collection of very young, promising poets, more a list of who to keep an eye on than a collection that's worth reading now.

ETA: three months later and this book hasn't left my bedside. I keep coming back & back to it, finding new wonders each time. I originally gave this 3 stars; I'm upping it to 5. Ignore what I said above, or maybe consider it only inasmuch as this: it may take show more a while to realize the utter brilliance & beauty here. show less

Fascinating collection of poems that examine the history of Chicago from its Native American origins to its settling and unsettling. Each poem is dated and dedicated to a person (Jane Addams, Gwendolyn Brooks, Muddy Waters, Studs Terkel, etc.) or an event (The Eastland Disaster, Disco Demolition, The Day Harold Died, etc). Fresh voice, fresh perspective and layers of meaning, though a very anti-establishment tone. (People's History). No sugar coating here, but as gritty and unapologetic as show more the city has always been. Great insights and depth of history and meaning that deserve more than a cursory read. Not exactly text book material, but maybe should be. show less

I took it literally when I heard that this collection has “77 poems, one for each neighborhood of Chicago,” and I was excited to explore “one something” about each area. While there are 77 entries, nowhere near all the neighborhoods are touched upon. Instead, it’s a curated, chronological history of Chicago from “before 1492” to 2017, in free-verse and hip-hop vignettes about injustice and social change, with significant anger. While I have grown eager to read about Chicago’s show more successes, it seems I still have much to appreciate about its other aspects. I will keep this volume. show less

Just bought this too - couldn't help it, the preview pieces in Poetry Magazine were so good...

Review:
Excellent, cannot recommend it enough. I don't know how to do it justice, so I'm going to quote one of the artist statements.

"The break is forever chipping away new labyrinths toward the place where the human soul goes to feed when nothing else will let it eat. The break is moving. It is a shape-shifter and a trickster. [....] The anthology here is peopled with writers who've paid their show more tribute to Papa 'Legba one way or the next. They've studied and lived in the liminal space from which the break emanates. They've pledged to the tradition of the break and the pilgrimage it demands. Each is chipping away a different maze to get to where the bass lives, and ensuring that his tracks can only be followed by those who pay the necessary tithes. It is why this anthology is a bible and a code-book. It is essential reading and trickster it is - offering several doors through which you may enter, if you have a clue about what you're travelling to."
-Roger Bonair-Agard

If you haven't read it... read it.
If you have read it... watch the videos, go to the shows, see the kids coming up in the next class that are building on this tradition. show less