Annotated Bibliography
“And when he tells you you ain’t nothin’, don’t believe him
And if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him”-Tupac
Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2020.
This book is about a young girl, Xiomara Batista. She is a Dominican girl who uses slam poetry to understand her world and herself. Xiomara is a high school girl confused about her feelings for boys, relationships, religion, and her body.
Betts, Reginald Dwayne. Felon: Poems. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2021.
This collection of poems is about the effects of being incarcerated, specifically as Black men in the United States. Topics include emotions and experiences such as drug abuse, domestic violence, unemployment, fatherhood, and homelessness. Felon tells the story of these topics through poetry.
Douglas, Emory, Bobby Seale, Sam Durant, Sonia Sanchez, and Colette Gaiter. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, 2023.
Emory Douglas is known for two things: 1. Being the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party 2. His iconic imagery in the Black Panther Newspaper. Douglas’s art was a symbol of resistance, self-determination, and black liberation. This book marries party insiders and visual identity.
Hayes, Terrance. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2018.
This book is about what it means to be an American, and the harrowing experience to be treated with violence and racism and want nothing more than to belong and never will.
Kaphar, Titus, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Redaction. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.
This book humanizes lawsuits through portraits and poems by redacting them. It gives blackout poetry vibes.
Comments: