$16.00
AVAILABLE IN STORES FALL 2016
A criminal released from death row hints he was guilty of murder all along, a special needs man raised on nothing but sermons attempts to explain COINTELPRO in black protests, a woman abducted and forced to raise her half-alien children remembers everything, Chinese–looking agents hired by the U.S. to overthrow China, kill Chinese soldiers outside Tiananmen Square. Tall As You Are Tall between Them is an exercise in possibility. Where many reporters shock and numb their audiences with a relentless stream of violence and insanity while skipping or inadequately addressing inconvenient questions, Christain starts with these questions, zooms in, hovers, and rewinds. The bizarre, disturbing, and uncomfortable scenarios presented in her poems are written with an earnestness that possesses just the right degree of plausibility to leave the reader asking time and time again, “What if?” At first glance, Tall As You Are Tall Between Them is otherworldly sci-fi horror. In the end, the book is too familiar. In fact, it is our very own—the underbelly and in-between of a shifting and sliding world where much meaning is found through context and brain chemistry. All the while, Christain teaches us to peel back the layers, to be fearless—“to jump towards the atom blast if [we’re] going to be forced to fall back anyway,” and to enjoy the ride.
Description
In Negro Side Of The Moon, Earl Braggs fires:
“…If you will, please understand
that Black on Black crime, as you may,
now, very well know, is un-completely
random, random Saturday night moon
niggers shooting and robbing and killing
and robbing then again other random,
stray Saturday night un-lit moon niggers
and Sunday morning Negroes worship-
ping trousers held up by a leather “maid”
Bible belt twisted around no purpose what-
so-ever to be not clearly seen. Black on Black
crime is a white shirt-white collar crime, wide
as a 12:15 Wall Street neat pile of dirt money,
stationary as a stop-school-street stop sign
traffic light, red-green-red-yellow blinking
night, white as a white Oxford, Mississippi
English Clorox white, buttoned-down white
shirt, tucked, re-tucked perfectly…”
HYPE
What is and has always been needed is an honest, clear, loving voice. Earl Braggs’ Negro Side of the Moon offers that. Pull up your favorite chair and cover your cold feet with your grandmother’s quilt and enjoy this wonderful read.
–Nikki Giovanni
In Negro Side of the Moon, Earl Braggs confronts the “problem of the color line” with lyrical ferocity and politically charged wit. Many things don’t get said about what seems to be a multifaceted conspiracy against the physical safety and mental well-being of Black Americas—which ultimately, calls every life into question. In his new book, Braggs means to sing the whole story in a voice both manic and carefully packed with the freight we’re all obliged to carry—whether we know it or not. If, as Dr. King has said, the destiny of white people is inextricably bound to the destiny of Black people Negro Side of the Moon is an invitation to all of us to wake the hell up and take a long look at what ails the American psyche.
–Tim Seibles
Additional information
| Description | Poetry – PB |
|---|---|
| Pages | Pages – 104 |
| ISBN | ISBN: 978-1-936196-77-7 |
| LCCN | LCCN: 2017943779 |
| Available September 15 | September 15, 2017 |
