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libraryalissa
Thanks to Haymarket Books for the free book.
This collection is brilliant, well-structured, insightful, and the scope of Ewing’s imagination constantly floored me. Ewing totally reimagines the way we look at historic events and familiar places, making them more vivid than either fact or fiction. Each poem takes an entirely different concept, always rooted in the theme of the collection, and executes it flawlessly. Honestly I think Ewing does for poetry what N. K. Jemisin does for SFF. Both authors take perspectives that are commonly marginalized in their genres and then work them over and over and over again, coming at them from a thousand different angles, proving that their subjects and themes are not mere tokens, but limitless, capable of devoting a lifetime of work to. Ewing’s work does this specifically for the city of Chicago, and here she pours her creative energy into one particular summer in it, turning the single event into a kaleidoscope of viewpoints, explorations, connections, and allusions, that shine with their sheer scope by the end.
This collection is brilliant, well-structured, insightful, and the scope of Ewing’s imagination constantly floored me. Ewing totally reimagines the way we look at historic events and familiar places, making them more vivid than either fact or fiction. Each poem takes an entirely different concept, always rooted in the theme of the collection, and executes it flawlessly. Honestly I think Ewing does for poetry what N. K. Jemisin does for SFF. Both authors take perspectives that are commonly marginalized in their genres and then work them over and over and over again, coming at them from a thousand different angles, proving that their subjects and themes are not mere tokens, but limitless, capable of devoting a lifetime of work to. Ewing’s work does this specifically for the city of Chicago, and here she pours her creative energy into one particular summer in it, turning the single event into a kaleidoscope of viewpoints, explorations, connections, and allusions, that shine with their sheer scope by the end.
I listened to this on audio and lost the thread a LOT. But it was great as a general survey of America at the time of slavery, in an interesting format. Looking forward to picking up Whitehead’s other works.
The writing wasn’t my favorite, but I appreciated the themes and genuinely did not see the twist coming.
Listened on audio and loved the narration and the gorgeous writing, especially the descriptions of the city. Story-wise, I expected everything to come together at the end but I just felt more confused. Regardless, I’ll be back for more Morrison.
Brilliant, thorough, paradigm-shifting. Mind-boggling in scope, Stamped from the Beginning truly is a nuanced and complete history of anti-black racism in the United States. It effectively teaches the history of racism while also along the way teaching its readers to un/relearn their fundamental understanding of what racism is. Cannot recommend highly enough.
(Side note: Despite the slightly misleading subtitle, this work focuses almost exclusively on *anti-black* racism, which is more than enough content for this already dense, rich, long book. If you’re looking for the history other types of racism in the US (anti-Asian, anti-Indigenous, etc.) you will have to supplement, but it’s 100% worth starting here.)
(Side note: Despite the slightly misleading subtitle, this work focuses almost exclusively on *anti-black* racism, which is more than enough content for this already dense, rich, long book. If you’re looking for the history other types of racism in the US (anti-Asian, anti-Indigenous, etc.) you will have to supplement, but it’s 100% worth starting here.)