AT PEACH:

Last Friday at Peach, we featured local poet Eve Williams’s poem, “My father looks like Emmett Till.” Williams self-publishes recordings of her spoken word poems to her Facebook page, Unfiltered​, and has garnered national attention for her clever and devastating style. In “My father looks like Emmett Till,” Williams explore a terrifying reality in which no person of color is safe in our world. She writes, “And it must be nice/ for all those to whom things is simple/ A tree is just a tree/ A rope is a rope”—a reminder, for those who have it, to reconcile the gravity of their privilege, to know that feeling grateful for one’s privilege isn’t good enough. Catch a performance by Eve Williams alongside local poets Dan McKeon and Olivea Wiggins and visiting poets Jamie Mortara and Jakob Maier this Saturday at an ​EPISODE​ at Georgette on Elmwood.

IN PRINT​:

Sons of Achilles​
By Nabila Lovelace

YesYes Books / 2018 / Poetry Collection

Seeing Nabila Lovelace read from her debut collection, ​Sons of Achilles​, was one of my highlights from AWP/Whale Prom 2018. Nabila has the kind of presence that commands the attention of any crowd. As she read, we hung on every word, and afterward I found her and had to have a copy of this book. ​Son of Achilles​ is Lovelace’s debut collection and is teeming with stories of love, relationships, and the cycle of violence and trauma that takes its toll on them. Her poem, “When Your Vice Is a Man,” relates her relationship with her father to her romantic relationships; of taking her father’s and then her future husband’s name, she writes, “my last name is leash-like. Now I complicate: I wanted / the boy to leash me. A ​bitch​ & here.” In “Citizenship,” a poem in which she explores the conflicted feelings she has toward America as a first-generation American raised by immigrants in the South, Lovelace writes, “I am afraid/ of what I mean by loyalty./ A down ass bitch/ I’d ride to the grave for love/ but what of where I made country / of the place I live my possible death plot?” Lovelace’s knack for tackling complicated issues through rhythmic and stylish prose make this collection unforgettable.