Incendiary Art Poems

The ghost of Emmett Till takes breath and litany through the powerful lines in Patricia Smith s new collection, "Incendiary Art." Metaphors and painful snapshots, written with the precision of a poet who has conquered page and stage, capture the United States of America on the brink and the implosion of civil rights with the Mississippi murder of a young boy from Chicago. Smith is the one to tell this story. Known world-wide for her commanding poetry, Smith still holds close her Chicago roots and empathy. Patricia Smith breaks us wide open, challenges history and gives Emmet Till, and the ones who grieved through this injustice, voice and power. "