Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This

A Fortune for your Diaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

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This is a newly released collection of poems by Hanif Abdurraqib, who was also recently nominated for the National Book Award for his commentary on Tribe Called Quest. I’ve also read his longer collection of essays, and it’s also excellent. This is a deeply satisfying collection of poem that is structured on the the three-part sequence for a successful stage illusion that we all learned from the movie The Prestige (or the book) — The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. And at first I […]

I don’t remember the first time I heard a racist joke at a punk rock show. Rather, I don’t remember the first time I was grabbed into a sweaty half-hug by one of the laughing white members of my Midwest punk scene and told don’t worry about it. We don’t think of you that way.

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You should go read this one. For one, it’s a really satisfying set of cultural essays written with the mindset and language of a well-informed poet. It’s also a perfect execution in observation and scope. Abdurraqib knows what he’s talking about. I mean that in non-colloquial ways. His perspective from which these essays are written are so interconnected with their topics and his sense of scale and scope are generally perfectly in tune. He doesn’t speak beyond his knowledge, he doesn’t speak for anyone besides […]



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