When Rap Spoke Straight to God by Erica Dawson
- When Rap Spoke Straight to God
- Erica Dawson
- Page: 70
- Format: pdf, ePub, mobi, fb2
- ISBN: 9781947793033
- Publisher: Tin House Books
When Rap Spoke Straight to God
Free pdf books free download When Rap Spoke Straight to God 9781947793033 English version PDF ePub by Erica Dawson
Overview
When Rap Spoke Straight to God by Erica Dawson A book-length poem navigating belief, black lives, the tragedies of Trump, and the boundaries of being a woman. "When Rap Spoke Straight to Godis utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger.” —Jennifer EganWhen Rap Spoke Straight to Godisn’t sacred or profane, but a chorus joined in a single soliloquy, demanding to be heard. There’s Wu-Tang and Mary Magdelene with a foot fetish, Lil’ Kim and a self-loving Lilith. Slurs, catcalls, verses, erasures—Dawson asks readers, “Just how far is it to nigger?” Both grounded and transcendent, the book is reality and possibility. Dawson’s work has always been raw; but,When Rap Spoke Straight to Godis as blunt as the answer to that earlier question: “Here.” Sometimes abrasive and often abraded, Dawson doesn’t flinch. A mix of traditional forms where sonnets mash up with sestinas morphing to heroic couplets,When Rap Spoke Straight to Godinsists that while you may recognize parts of the poem’s world, you can’t anticipate how it will evolve. With a literal exodus of light in the book’s final moments,When Rap Spoke Straight to Godis a lament for and a celebration of blackness.It’s never depression; it’s defiance—a persistent resistance. In this book, like Wu-Tang says, the marginalized “ain’t nothing to f—- with.”