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Description
In supreme night, the troubles of double consciousness and anti-Black violence recede into the temporary haven that night engenders. In Donnell's imagination, like poets before, the cover of darkness, its familiarity and mysteriousness, is transcendent because it is where oppressed peoples may find the power to live beyond the social and legal limitations imposed in daylight. These nights are not free of horror and tragedy, nor are they free of love, humor, anger or regret. The supreme night envelopes all that memory preserves, bends, and fabricates. As a book of poetry, supreme night weaves a variety of voices, subjects and forms into a single composition. Its micro-narratives, lyrics, monologues, and historical sources twist, bend, and cycle through, coalescing to memorialize the legacy of Black life in America. Both unique and ambitious in scope, humorous and heartbreaking, supreme night is a fractured song of witness, a romance with the veil. Its vibrant language and varied themes subvert expectations to celebrate the power of dissemblance, and the poet as keeper of knowledge and rogue histories.
In supreme night, the troubles of double consciousness and anti-Black violence recede into the temporary haven that night engenders. In Donnell's imagination, like poets before, the cover of darkness, its familiarity and mysteriousness, is transcendent because it is where oppressed peoples may find the power to live beyond the social and legal limitations imposed in daylight. These nights are not free of horror and tragedy, nor are they free of love, humor, anger or regret. The supreme night envelopes all that memory preserves, bends, and fabricates. As a book of poetry, supreme night weaves a variety of voices, subjects and forms into a single composition. Its micro-narratives, lyrics, monologues, and historical sources twist, bend, and cycle through, coalescing to memorialize the legacy of Black life in America. Both unique and ambitious in scope, humorous and heartbreaking, supreme night is a fractured song of witness, a romance with the veil. Its vibrant language and varied themes subvert expectations to celebrate the power of dissemblance, and the poet as keeper of knowledge and rogue histories.
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