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112 | |
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suddenly we
Evie Shockley's new poems invite us to dream—and work—toward a more capacious "we"
In her new poetry collection, Evie Shockley mobilizes visual art, sound, and multilayered language to chart routes towards openings for the collective dreaming of a more capacious "we." How do we navigate between the urgency of our own becoming and the imperative insight that whoever we are, we are in relation to each other? Beginning with the visionary art of Black women like Alison Saar and Alma Thomas, Shockley's poems draw and forge a widening constellation of connections that help make visible the interdependence of everyone and everything on Earth.
perched
i am black, comely,
a girl on the cusp of desire.
my dangling toes take the rest
the rest of my body refuses. spine upright,
my pose proposes anticipation. i poise
in copper-colored tension, intent on
manifesting my soul in the discouraging world.
under the rough eyes of others, i stiffen.
if i must be hard, it will be as a tree, alive
with change. inside me, a love of beauty rises
like sap, sprouts from my scalp
and stretches forth. i send out my song, an aria
blue and feathered, and grow toward it,
choirs bare, but soon to bud. i am
black and becoming.
—after Alison Saar's Blue Bird
In her new poetry collection, Evie Shockley mobilizes visual art, sound, and multilayered language to chart routes towards openings for the collective dreaming of a more capacious "we." How do we navigate between the urgency of our own becoming and the imperative insight that whoever we are, we are in relation to each other? Beginning with the visionary art of Black women like Alison Saar and Alma Thomas, Shockley's poems draw and forge a widening constellation of connections that help make visible the interdependence of everyone and everything on Earth.
perched
i am black, comely,
a girl on the cusp of desire.
my dangling toes take the rest
the rest of my body refuses. spine upright,
my pose proposes anticipation. i poise
in copper-colored tension, intent on
manifesting my soul in the discouraging world.
under the rough eyes of others, i stiffen.
if i must be hard, it will be as a tree, alive
with change. inside me, a love of beauty rises
like sap, sprouts from my scalp
and stretches forth. i send out my song, an aria
blue and feathered, and grow toward it,
choirs bare, but soon to bud. i am
black and becoming.
—after Alison Saar's Blue Bird
About the Author
EVIE SHOCKLEY, (Jersey City, NJ) poet and scholar, is the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English at Rutgers University. A Lannan Literary Award-winner, she is the author of multiple books of poetry including a half-red sea; the new black, which received the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry; and semiautomatic, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2018.
Endorsements
"suddenly we sings the nuanced realities of Black life as homage, elegy, and polyphonic celebration striking at the core of remembrance. A deep and unfettered thinking, Shockley gives us shouts of joy amidst the drudge of a world unraveled."—Matthew Shenoda, author of Tahrir Suite
Wesleyan University Press | |
Wesleyan Poetry Series | |
|
|
|
|
Hardback | |
March 7, 2023 | |
9780819500236 | |
English | |
112 | |
3 b&w photos | |
9.50 Inches (US) | |
7.00 Inches (US) | |
1 Pounds (US) | |
$26.00 USD, £19.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Paperback / softback | |
March 7, 2023 | |
9780819500458 | |
English | |
112 | |
3 b&w photos | |
9.50 Inches (US) | |
7.00 Inches (US) | |
.55 Pounds (US) | |
$15.95 USD, £11.95 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Downloadable audio file | |
March 7, 2023 | |
9780819500472 | |
English | |
112 | |
3 b&w photos | |
9.50 Inches (US) | |
7.00 Inches (US) | |
$25.00 USD, £18.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles by Evie Shockley
semiautomatic
Evie Shockley
Jun 2018
- Wesleyan University Press
$15.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$11.99 USD
- Electronic book text
Contemporary African American Literature
edited by Lovalerie King, Shirley Moody-Turner, with contributions by Darryl Dickson-Carr, Eve Dunbar, Kristina Graaff, Carmen L. Phelps, James Braxton Peterson, L. H. Stallings, Trudier Harris, Howard Rambsy, Dana A. Williams, Greg Car...
Aug 2013
- Indiana University Press
$85.00 USD
- Hardback
$30.00 USD
- Paperback / softback
the new black
Evie Shockley
Mar 2012
- Wesleyan University Press
$24.95 USD
- Hardback
$15.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$12.99 USD
- Electronic book text
Other Titles from Wesleyan Poetry Series
The Ruins of Nostalgia
Donna Stonecipher
Oct 2023
- Wesleyan University Press
$28.00 USD
- Hardback
$16.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
Sukun
Kazim Ali
Sep 2023
- Wesleyan University Press
$40.00 USD
- Hardback
$28.00 USD
- Paperback / softback
Fierce Elegy
Peter Gizzi
Aug 2023
- Wesleyan University Press
$27.00 USD
- Hardback
$16.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
Other Titles in POETRY / American / African American
Black Creole Chronicles
Mona Lisa Saloy
Apr 2023
- University of New Orleans Press
$18.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
Buffalo Dance, expanded edition
Frank X Walker
Nov 2022
- University Press of Kentucky
$19.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$29.95 USD
- Electronic book text
$19.95 USD
- Electronic book text
We Know This Place
Sunni Patterson
Apr 2022
- University of New Orleans Press
$18.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
Other Titles in Black & Asian studies
Lucky Medicine
Lester W. Thompson
Feb 2023
- Indiana University Press
$60.00 USD
- Hardback
$24.00 USD
- Paperback / softback
They Got Daddy
Sharon Tubbs
Jan 2023
- Indiana University Press
$65.00 USD
- Hardback
$20.00 USD
- Paperback / softback
Musical Resilience
Shalini R. Ayyagari
Nov 2022
- Wesleyan University Press
$95.00 USD
- Hardback
$26.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$21.99 USD
- Electronic book text