Ain't Never Not Been Black (Button Poetry) - Softcover

Johnson, Javon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1943735840 ISBN 13: 9781943735846

Publisher: Button Poetry, 2020

Synopsis

2021 Midwest Book Award Finalist
2021 In The Margins Book Awards - Nonfiction Recommendation List

Ain't Never Not Been Black foregrounds Black pleasure Black pain and Black love in unflinchingly Black ways.

Engaging with themes of masculinity, racism, love, and joy, Johnson is at once critical and creative. His spoken word performance transfers effortlessly to the page, with poems that will encompass you.

This is a book about blackness and survival, and how in America these are inseparable. In a world of individualism, who can you hold close? In a world of danger, what makes you feel safe?

From a poem written in the form of a syllabus, to another about the time his grandmother literally saved his life, Johnson's creative expression is constantly enacting the feminist mantra, “the personal is political."

About this title

About the Author

Javon Johnson is a highly awarded poet, and Professor of African American Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He wrote Killing Poetry: Performing Blackness, Poetry Slams and the Making of Spoken Word Communities (Rutgers University Press). Javon writes for The Huffington Post, The Root, and Our Weekly, and serves on the editorial board for Text & Performance Quarterly. Professor Johnson has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, BET's Lyric Cafe, TVOnes Verses & Flow, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Steve Harvey Show, and co-wrote a documentary titled Crossover, which aired on Showtime, in collaboration with the NBA and Nike.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

And...

my single mother raised
two Black boys in gang ridden,
crack infested 1980's south central,
los angeles. when speaking of us
she often says, “I'm so happy
my boys are still alive,
not in jail. They're doing well.”
she never starts
with my phd from northwestern,
my brother's masters in business from usc.
she knows how easy
our graduations could have been funerals.
all pomp and circumstance. being a Black
mother means playing russian roulette
everytime you send your kids out
the front door for school,
for skittles and tea,
for groceries,
or to just...

Edition details

• Publisher: Button Poetry
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1943735840
• ISBN 13: 9781943735846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 100