{"product_id":"when-rap-spoke-straight-to-god-isbn-9781947793033","title":"When Rap Spoke Straight to God","description":"\u003cb\u003eA book-length poem navigating belief, black lives, the tragedies of Trump, and the boundaries of being a woman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God\u003c\/i\u003e is utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger.” —Jennifer Egan \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God \u003c\/i\u003eisn’t sacred or profane, but a chorus joined in a single soliloquy, demanding to be heard. There’s Wu-Tang and Mary Magdelene with a foot fetish, Lil’ Kim and a self-loving Lilith. Slurs, catcalls, verses, erasures—Dawson asks readers, “Just how far is it to nigger?” Both grounded and transcendent, the book is reality and possibility. Dawson’s work has always been raw; but, When Rap Spoke Straight to God is as blunt as the answer to that earlier question: “Here.” Sometimes abrasive and often abraded, Dawson doesn’t flinch.  \u003cbr\u003eA mix of traditional forms where sonnets mash up with sestinas morphing to heroic couplets, \u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God\u003c\/i\u003e insists that while you may recognize parts of the poem’s world, you can’t anticipate how it will evolve.   \u003cbr\u003eWith a literal exodus of light in the book’s final moments, \u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God\u003c\/i\u003e is a lament for and a celebration of blackness.  It’s never depression; it’s defiance—a persistent resistance. In this book, like Wu-Tang says, the marginalized “ain’t nothing to f--- with.”\u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God \u003c\/i\u003eis utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger.\n—Jennifer Egan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain, Erica Dawson has expanded the possibilities of what we think poetry can do. The lusciously long poems in \u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God\u003c\/i\u003e are sensual and openly political and so well-crafted in epic blank verse that we begin to see how the contemporary moment has yet to fully correct far too many historical moments.  And it does this with a lyric intensity that I dare say can only be achieved by a poet fully aware of her place in time and its potential.\n—Jericho Brown\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA defiant celebration of Blackness.—Colorlines\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Dawson] is devoted to filling in the cultural blanks . . .  Her subject, in a way, is blanks: needs unmet, crimes unacknowledged, thoughts unexplored. By writing, she begins to fill them.—New York Times Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eErica Dawson delivers a short collection of long poems that take our current time and dissect it into beautiful and evocative pieces. Harsh but never hard, unflinching but never violent, she speaks to the experiences of black women, celebrating the best of black culture and lamenting its struggles. Wrapped in and elevated by exquisite religious allusions, Dawson’s poetry shines.—World Literature Today\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Rap Spoke Straight to God\u003c\/i\u003e extends the tradition of call and response, of spirituals, hymns, and hip-hop. . . . Dawson’s collection is prophetic and vibrant. Every poem feels like a testimony. Each stanza is holy.\n—Signature Reads\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eErica Dawson is a\npoet of verve and nuance, of high learning and pop culture, of a classical\nmusic she seems to have invented herself.  —Mary Jo Salter\u003cb\u003eErica Dawson\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two collections of poetry:\u003ci\u003eThe Small Blades Hurt\u003c\/i\u003e (Measure Press, 2014), winner of the 2016 Poets’ Prize; and, \u003ci\u003eBig-Eyed Afraid\u003c\/i\u003e (Waywiser Pess, 2007), winner of the 2006 Anthony Hecht Prize. Her work has appeared in three editions of \u003ci\u003eBest American Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e; the Pushcart Prize XLI: \u003ci\u003eBest of the Small Presses\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eResistance\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRebellion\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLife: 50 Poems Now, Barrow Street\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBennington Review\u003c\/i\u003e, Crazyhorse, \u003ci\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVirginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and numerous other journals and anthologies.\u003cbr\u003e\nShe lives in Tampa, FL and is an Associate Professor at University of Tampa, where she also directs the low-residency MFA program.","brand":"Tin House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233844998373,"sku":"NP9781947793033","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781947793033.jpg?v=1767743973","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/when-rap-spoke-straight-to-god-isbn-9781947793033","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}