A review by adriatrees
The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop by

4.0

A collection of poetry from writers born from 1961-1999. Poetry inspired by hip-hop and breakbeat poetics. “...hip hop is ultimately a weapon for life and against the wack, the white supremacist.” I was excited to read this poetry anthology because it featured poets that I admired such as Danez Smith, Morgan Parker, Jericho Brown, Ocean Vuong, Fatimah Asghar, Safia Elhillo, and Jamila Woods (as well as introducing me to poets that I’d love to read more from like Kevin Coval, Tarfia Faizullah, Idris Goodwin, Tony Medina, Joy Priest, Patrick Rosal, Evie Shockley, and more.) Because most of these poems are hip hop inspired and SLAM, and are written in beats, they are something I would appreciate to hear because I feel like that’d be more impactful than reading. I’m looking forward to reading the other volumes of BreakBeat Poets! Good read.