Reparations now! Poems

Ashley M. Jones, 1990-

Book - 2021

"What is the price of a life, a stolen culture, a stolen heart? In formal and nontraditional poems, Reparations Now! asks for what is owed. Moving between voices and through intersecting histories, award-winning poet Ashley M. Jones offers perspectives both sharp and compassionate, exploring the difficulties of navigating our relationships with ourselves and others. From the murder of Mary Turner in 1918 to a case of infidelity to the oppressive nationalist movement of the present, Jones holds us accountable"--

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Subjects
Genres
Poetry
Published
Spartanburg, SC : Hub City Press [2021]
Language
English
Main Author
Ashley M. Jones, 1990- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
69 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781938235863
  • Hymn Of Our Jesus & The Holy Tow Truck
  • Mary, Don't You Weep, Or, Mary Turner Resurrected
  • Stephen Don't You Moan, Or, To Serve And Protect
  • The Kid Next To Me At The 7pm Showing Of The Avengers Has A Toy Gun
  • In My Dream, I'm Shot Again And Again
  • Soul Power / James Brown Time Loop
  • The Horns, According To James Brown
  • What Lives In The If In Al Green's "Simply Beautiful"
  • Home Security
  • Meteor Shower
  • Photosynthesis
  • She Is Beauty, She Is Grace
  • Poem In Which I Am Too Political To Read At Your School
  • The Hymn Of The Dogwood Tree
  • All Y'all Really From Alabama
  • Manifest Destiny
  • Excess
  • In Freeland, All The Beaches Are Owned
  • Sharks!
  • Sonnet For The Man Screaming Himself Into Existence At Bellevue ER
  • Love In The Time Of Pandemic
  • Ainteenem
  • Hostile Environment
  • God Made My Whole Body
  • A Poem About The Body
  • For The Men Who Made Sure I Knew They Did Not Love Me
  • In Critique Of Black Female Demonization, Not Miscegenation
  • Words With Friends
  • Bestiary Of Bad Kisses
  • Love Note: Surely
  • It Is Entirely Possible For A Black Girl To Be Loved
  • Summer Vacation In The Subjunctive
  • Contrapuntal With Gladys Knight And Infidelity
  • The Self Returns, A Year Later
  • Aubade With Lalah Hathaway And Rachelle Ferrell
  • Aubade: My Mother Calls Home
  • Sonnet With Kanye West And Late Uncle
  • Greatest Nigger Who Ever Lived
  • Reparations Now, Reparations Tomorrow, Reparations Forever
  • I Find The Earring That Broke Loose From My Ear The Night A White Woman Told Me The World Would Always Save Her
  • I Cannot Talk About The South Without Talking About Black Women
  • Friendly Skies, Or, Black Woman Speaks Herself Into God
  • An Experiential And Intellectual Discourse On The N-Word
  • Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane No. 106
  • Redlining
  • Oil Change
  • Catalog Of Things In Which There Is Still God
  • How To Let Go, Or, I Smudged Lost Loves Away Into The Ocean
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In poems that showcase a wide formal range, Jones (Magic City Gospel) expertly juxtaposes historical moments and incidents with personal history in her impressive third collection. Jones poses questions directly, without foregoing lyricism of expression or nuance: "is there a police protocol for grace,/ for the moment between show us your hands and shoot?" "Hymn of Our Jesus & The Holy Tow Truck" (after a concrete poem by Mary Szybist) asks: "-is it that easy, God?/ to be pulled, or,/ as if a car, halfcrushed/maybe to follow,/ on the back of a tow-truck?" The subsequent poem poignantly addresses the murder of Mary Turner, with striking insights ("it turns out, all along hell was earth"). These are powerful considerations of witness and strife, recovery and strength. In "She is Beauty, She is Grace," dedicated to Breonna Taylor and other murdered Black women, she speaks of her mother: "She told me how God made me Black and worthy... She knew, surely, what awaited me outside her door." This entry is full of heartbreaking and memorable observations, providing a necessary portrait of the ceaseless violence endured by Black Americans, and the long struggle for justice. (Sept.)

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