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A review by julenetrippweaver
[insert] boy by Danez Smith
5.0
This is a powerful book with a great title. [Insert] Boy is the key to reading each of the sections in the book: [Black], [Papa's lil'], [Ruined], [Rent], [Lover], and [Again] Boy.
He writes of black boys and men and of being gay. One of his well known poems is "Alternate Names for Black Boys" in which we see a broader spectrum of methaphors possible for black boys, outside the standard views from the outside, a few include: first son of soil, oil heavy starlight, a mother's joy and clutched breath. Here in the US black boys are seen as dangerous or a threat by a large amount of the population and the powers that be, the police, the government. The world is against black boys, they are under seige and this book lays it out.
He writes, "ghosts raid/my poor tongue demanding names." And in the same poem he names: Sean Bell (20 years old killed by the police outside his bachelor party the night before his wedding in 2006 in Queens, NY), Bo Morrison (20 years old killed by a homeowner in Wisconson in 2012 after complaints about a loud party), Oscar Grant (22 years old killed by the police in San Francisco in 2012), Trayvon Martin (17 years old killed by a vigilante in Florida where he was visiting a relative in 2012), and one black girl, Latasha Harlins (15 years old killed by a Korean shop owner in 1992, it was shortly after the Rodney King riots in LA, she had the money for the OJ she was going to buy in her hand). In the same poem he writes, "10 Black girls went missing & you found your keys/10 Black boys died & mama said kids these days.
This book is written as an elegy for the many losses, as a way to heal from the trauma from those losses. In the section [Ruined] Boy he has five poems that are Healing Attempt #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, yet in an interview Danez used a quote, that it is not the writing that is healing because the writing is work. So he is working hard to initiate change. He is working on himself, he is providing a template for others to see and find new stories and metaphors for their life.
I've heard him read and he is passionate, his next book will be out in 2017, he is starting an MFA program. Read this important work and do watch for his work to come.
He writes of black boys and men and of being gay. One of his well known poems is "Alternate Names for Black Boys" in which we see a broader spectrum of methaphors possible for black boys, outside the standard views from the outside, a few include: first son of soil, oil heavy starlight, a mother's joy and clutched breath. Here in the US black boys are seen as dangerous or a threat by a large amount of the population and the powers that be, the police, the government. The world is against black boys, they are under seige and this book lays it out.
He writes, "ghosts raid/my poor tongue demanding names." And in the same poem he names: Sean Bell (20 years old killed by the police outside his bachelor party the night before his wedding in 2006 in Queens, NY), Bo Morrison (20 years old killed by a homeowner in Wisconson in 2012 after complaints about a loud party), Oscar Grant (22 years old killed by the police in San Francisco in 2012), Trayvon Martin (17 years old killed by a vigilante in Florida where he was visiting a relative in 2012), and one black girl, Latasha Harlins (15 years old killed by a Korean shop owner in 1992, it was shortly after the Rodney King riots in LA, she had the money for the OJ she was going to buy in her hand). In the same poem he writes, "10 Black girls went missing & you found your keys/10 Black boys died & mama said kids these days.
This book is written as an elegy for the many losses, as a way to heal from the trauma from those losses. In the section [Ruined] Boy he has five poems that are Healing Attempt #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, yet in an interview Danez used a quote, that it is not the writing that is healing because the writing is work. So he is working hard to initiate change. He is working on himself, he is providing a template for others to see and find new stories and metaphors for their life.
I've heard him read and he is passionate, his next book will be out in 2017, he is starting an MFA program. Read this important work and do watch for his work to come.