Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie? Brown makes mythical pastorals to question the terrors to which we’ve become accustomed, and to celebrate how we survive. Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are propelled into stunning clarity by Brown’s mastery, and his invention of the duplex—a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues—is testament to his formal skill. The Tradition is a cutting and necessary collection, relentless in its quest for survival while reveling in a celebration of contradiction.

The Tradition

""Erotic and grief-stricken, ministerial and playful, Brown offers his reader a journey unlike any other in contemporary poetry."-Rain Taxi"To read Jericho Brown's poems is to encounter devastating genius."-Claudia RankineIn the world of Jericho Brown's second book, disease runs through the body, violence runs through the neighborhood, memories run through the mind, trauma runs through generations. Almost eerily quiet in even the bluntest of poems, Brown gives us the ache of a throat that has yet to say the hardest thing-and the truth is coming on fast.Fairy TaleSay the shame I see inching like steam Along the streets will never seep Beneath the doors of this bedroom, And if it does, if we dare to breathe, Tell me that though the world ends us, Lover, itcannot end our love Of narrative. Don't you have a story For me?-like the one you tell With fingers over my lips to keep me From sighing when-before the queen Is kidnapped-the prince bows To the enemy, handing over the horn Of his favorite unicorn like those men Brought, bought, and whipped until They accepted their masters' names. Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans before earning his PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. His first book, PLEASE (New Issues), won the American Book Award. He currently teaches at Emory University and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. "--

The New Testament

June Jordan

Christoph Keller

Jan Heller Levi

The Essential June Jordan

Please

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. PLEASE explores the points in our lives at which love and violence intersect. Drunk on its own rhythms and full of imaginative and often frightening imagery, PLEASE is the album playing in the background of the history and culture that surround African American/male identity and sexuality. Just as radio favorites like Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, and Pink Floyd characterize loss, loneliness, addiction, and denial with their voices, these poems' chorus of speakers transform moments of intimacy and humor into spontaneous music. In PLEASE, Jericho Brown sings the influence soul culture has on American life with the accuracy of the blues.

John Andrews

Dorothy Allison

Kevin Sessums

Will Stockton

D. Gilson

Mary Meriam

Derrick Austin

Sassafras Lowrey

Perry Brass

Dan Stone

Ed Madden

Cameron Mitchell

Miriam Bird Greenberg

Jeff Mann

Shane Allison

Richard Blanco

Randall Mann

Scott Wiggerman

Valerie Wetlaufer

Jason K. Friedman

TC Tolbert

Dan Vera

Del Shores

Darrel Alejandro Holnes

Evan J. Peterson

Joseph Osmundson

Christine Stroud

Jeffery Berg

Dustin Brookshire

Joey Connelly

William Cordeiro

C. Cleo Creech

James Croteau

J.K. Daniels

Nick Dephtereos

David Eye

Ellen Goldstein

Elizabeth Gross

Johnathan Harper

Scott Hightower

Matthew Hittinger

Rex Leonowicz

Tyler Lynn

Bo McGuire

Rangi McNeil

Kelly McQuain

M. Mack

Stephen S. Mills

Foster Noone

Eddie Outlaw

Seth Pennington

Kenneth Pobo

Brad Richard

Hannah Riddle

Laurence Ross

Liana Roux

Erin Elizabeth Smith

Billie Tadros

Annie Virginia

C.T. Whitley

Cristan Williams

L. Lamar Wilson

In The Queer South, Douglas Ray has assembled over 60 queer-identified voices exploring their experiences of the American South in nonfiction and poetry. From hilarious to heartbreaking, anxious to angry, religious to reluctant, contemplative to celebratory, this anthology expands our ideas of what it means to be queer and what it means to represent the land south of the Mason-Dixon. Included are Dorothy Allison, Shane Allison, John Andrews, Derrick Austin, Jeffery Berg, Richard Blanco, Perry Brass, Dustin Brookshire, Jericho Brown, Joey Connelly, William Cordeiro, C. Cleo Creech, James Croteau, J.K. Daniels, Nick Dephtereos, David Eye, Jason K. Friedman, D. Gilson, Ellen Goldstein, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Elizabeth Gross, Johnathan Harper, Scott Hightower, Matthew Hittinger, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Rex Leonowicz, Sassafras Lowrey, Tyler Lynn, Bo McGuire, Rangi McNeil, Kelly McQuain, M. Mack, Ed Madden, Jeff Mann, Randall Mann, Mary Meriam, Stephen S. Mills, Cameron Mitchell, Foster Noone, Joseph Osmundson, Eddie Outlaw, Seth Pennington, Evan J. Peterson, Kenneth Pobo, Brad Richard, Hannah Riddle, Laurence Ross, Liana Roux, Kevin Sessums, Del Shores, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Will Stockton, Dan Stone, Christine Stroud, Billie Tadros, TC Tolbert, Dan Vera, Annie Virginia, Valerie Wetlaufer, C.T. Whitley, Scott Wiggerman, Cristan Williams, and L. Lamar Wilson.

LGBTQ Writers on the American South

The Queer South

Vencedor do prêmio Pulitzer de poesia em 2020, A tradição, do norte-americano Jericho Brown, afirma o corpo como um lugar de encontro, resistência e celebração. Contra a rasura e o controle sobre os corpos gays e negros, Brown canta com ternura toda a beleza em sua força poética e política, escolhendo Eros como aquele que conduz os seus versos. Ao fundir formas líricas diversas, tais como o soneto, o gazel e o blues, o livro nomeia a casa, a mãe, a memória, a cama desfeita depois do amor, e, ao mesmo tempo, a rua, o medo e o risco de cruzar a cidade e se tornar alvo da polícia. Como escreve a poeta Anelise Freitas na orelha: "O que seria a tradição para um corpo negro? Provavelmente, a opressão, a violência, a dor — poderia afirmar um leitor desavisado. Mas, para Jericho Brown, a tradição é tudo o que o corpo pode sentir e experimentar para além da cólera. O corpo, neste livro, está livre para sentir. Entre a felicidade que se tem e a que se merece, os poemas nos ensinam sobre a liberdade." Em tradução certeira de Stephanie Borges, os poemas de Brown chegam para abrir caminhos e dizer em qual direção a vida segue.

A Tradição

Dunya Mikhail

Danez Smith

Ilya Kaminsky

Tiffany Midge

Rajiv Mohabir

Tanaya Winder

Lawrence Matsuda

Gary Copeland Lilley

Anna Balint

Thomas Hubbard

Shankar Narayan

Take a Stand: Art Against Hate, A Raven Chronicles Anthology, edited by Seattle-based writers Anna Balint, Phoebe Bosche, and Thomas Hubbard, contains poems, stories and images from 117 writers and 53 artists, divided into five fluid and intersecting sections: Legacies, We Are Here, Why?, Evidence, and Resistance. We begin with Legacies because the current increased climate of hate in this country didn't begin with the 2016 election, and to find its roots we must look to U.S. history. Take a Stand, Art Against Hate Anthology comes at a critical time in our nation's cultural discourse surrounding intersections of identity, resistance, and looking at the past to forge a path forward. This collection spans form, tone, and theme without feeling cluttered; you find yourself reading something new while experiencing the same emotions many of us have come to find all too familiar. Thought-provoking and heart-wrenching, this collection flows seamlessly from poetry to visual art, creating an anthology that is not only a commanding and introspective read, but a necessary one. We can regard Take a Stand: Art Against Hate as a print-form peace march, an ongoing campaign for justice for all of the struggles embodied in these writings and depicted in the photos and artwork included here. This is a deeply democratic anthology-standing alongside nationally prominent voices such as Jericho Brown, Lucille Clifton, Tess Gallagher, Ilya Kaminsky, Dunya Mikhail, Marge Piercy and Danez Smith, are luminaries renowned in this region and beyond, such as Kathleen Alcalá, Gary Copeland Lilley, Claudia Castro Luna, Melissa Kwasny, Priscilla Long, Tiffany Midge, and Gail Tremblay.

A Raven Chronicles Anthology

Take a Stand, Art Against Hate

In this special edition of Jericho Brown's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Tradition,you are invited to participate in an urgent dialog--sparked by poetry--about what it means to be human. Including a discussion guide and an interview with the author, The Tradition: Civic Dialog Editionis meant to catalyze and inspire deep and engaging community conversations. In 2021, the Free Library of Philadelphia selected The Traditionfor their annual city-wide reading program, choosing a book of poetry for the first time ever. The vision was for neighbor to meet neighbor and discuss--in profound and transformative ways--the difficult subjects confronted so powerfully by the poems: racism, homophobia, violence, and the human resolve to compose a joyful life. To encourage other communities--cities, schools, book groups--to follow Philadelphia's lead, Copper Canyon Press collaborated with the Free Library to create The Tradition: Civic Dialog Edition. The dream is to tap the power of poetry to open hearts, clarify vision, spark conversation, and help make the world a more just and equitable place. And, if we're fortunate, to laugh as freely and share as openly as the poet himself.

The Tradition: Civic Dialog Edition

A Young Man

Jericho Brown

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