Poetry – Page 2 – Reads A Lot

Memoir, Poetry, and Climate Change in Felicia Luna Lemus’ “Particulate Matter” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsDecember 21, 2020 by Amy Brady

[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. Unlike most books explored in this column, Felicia Luna Lemus’s Particulate Matter … Read more

Poetry, Prose, and Politics in “Make Me Rain” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsOctober 31, 2020 by Mandana Chaffa

[ad_1] Nikki Giovanni—one of the great poets of any generation—still has much to impart in Make Me Rain, her hybrid autobiography of poems and prose. Given the tumultuous aspects of 2020, the disruptions and dislocations of quotidian and public life, there’s a refreshing discordance in reading Giovanni’s newest and especially personal collection. Throughout the book, … Read more

Madness, Civilization, and the Poetry of Violence in Artaud the Mômo – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsOctober 27, 2020 by Joseph Houlihan

[ad_1] Antonin Artaud was one of the foundational voices in establishing the modern avant garde. His famous writings on The Theater and Its Double, and Theatre of Cruelty, place him alongside Breton and Brecht in creating the contemporary understanding of avant-garde practice. This new collection, Artaud the Mômo, draws from his last period of writing, … Read more

Unwashed, festering, and still poignant poetry in “Ground Zero” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsOctober 23, 2020 by Meredith Boe

[ad_1] Marc Kelly Smith, nicknamed “Slam Papi,” founded international slam poetry in the 1980s when he started the monumental Uptown Poetry Slam series at the Green Mill. Each Sunday night, he attracted misfits and poets from across Chicago and its suburbs to exchange words, including the likes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Patricia Smith, who provides … Read more

Joy Harjo on the Power of Poetry, and on Building a Comprehensive Canon of Indigenous Poems – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsOctober 16, 2020 by Clancey D'Isa

[ad_1] “It is poetry that holds the songs of becoming, of change, of dreaming, and it is poetry we turn to when we travel those places of transformation, like birth, coming of age, marriage, accomplishments, and death. We sing our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren: our human experience in time, into and through existence.” So begins the … Read more

Knocking Poetry Off Its Pedestal in “The Math Campers” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 30, 2020 by Ryan Asmussen

$Knocking Poetry Off Its Pedestal in “The Math Campers” – Chicago Review of Books$

[ad_1] An extraordinary, often mesmerizing engagement with the nature of identity and other existential trappings, The Math Campers, Dan Chiasson’s new collection of poetry, is a meta-kaleidoscope of literature and literary influence. A geometric swirl of the many faces of the author’s family and friends (particularly his teenage sons), it is colored and blended by … Read more