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jacksons_books_and_music's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Profound, lyrical, visceral, enlightening, and moving poetry. It sheds light of the predatory prison system and its long-lasting impacts on those it incarcerates and their families.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism, Gun violence, Genocide, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Blood, Rape, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship
mfrisk's review
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I will admit poetry is not something I typically pick up so I’m not surely I fully understood each and every poem in this book however the redacted poems in particular stuck out to me and were incredibly powerful. This is a book about incarceration and it’s wide reaching impacts and how we can continue to fight against them. Highly recommend everyone gives this book a try.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Racial slurs, and Domestic abuse
readingwithkt's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
A fantastic collection of poetry centering majorly on the poet's experiences in prison in the USA. I thought this was a fantastic and reasonably varied in terms of style collection of poems.
My favourites were the redacted poems, as they really spoke volumes on the injustices inherent in the US criminal justice system. I also loved the poet's afterword where they describe the project that inspired the poems and the work they are doing.
The organisation is called Civil Rights Corps (CRC) and Reginald Dwayne Betts writes: "Every night, there are 450,000 human beings awaiting trial in U.S. jail cells solely because they cannot make a (bail) payment... Four poems in this collection, "In Alabama", "In Houston", "In California" and "In Missouri" were redacted from legal documents that CRC filed to challenge the incarceration of people because they could not afford to pay bail. These poems use redaction, not as a tool to obfuscate, but as a technique that reveals the tragedy, drama, and injustice of a system that makes people simply a reflection of their bank accounts."
Other bookmarked poems include: "When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving", "If Absence Was the Source of Silence" and "Confession".
I'm glad to have been introduced to this poet and I'll definitely be reading more from them!
My favourites were the redacted poems, as they really spoke volumes on the injustices inherent in the US criminal justice system. I also loved the poet's afterword where they describe the project that inspired the poems and the work they are doing.
The organisation is called Civil Rights Corps (CRC) and Reginald Dwayne Betts writes: "Every night, there are 450,000 human beings awaiting trial in U.S. jail cells solely because they cannot make a (bail) payment... Four poems in this collection, "In Alabama", "In Houston", "In California" and "In Missouri" were redacted from legal documents that CRC filed to challenge the incarceration of people because they could not afford to pay bail. These poems use redaction, not as a tool to obfuscate, but as a technique that reveals the tragedy, drama, and injustice of a system that makes people simply a reflection of their bank accounts."
Other bookmarked poems include: "When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving", "If Absence Was the Source of Silence" and "Confession".
I'm glad to have been introduced to this poet and I'll definitely be reading more from them!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
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