Description
Ain’t Never Not Been Black is a searing, tender collection that holds Black pleasure, pain, and love in the same steady gaze—unflinching, intimate, and alive. Through poems that move with the energy of spoken word, the author explores masculinity, racism, survival, and joy, asking what it means to feel safe, to be held, and to remain whole in America. Structured by inventive forms—from a poem shaped like a syllabus to personal memories that carry the weight of history—these pieces make the personal unmistakably political. With a voice that is both critical and creative, Javon Johnson turns language into refuge, insisting that Blackness is not only endured, but celebrated.
Available Editions
paperback
SCB Distributors
Published Oct 13, 2020
71 pages
ISBN: 9781943735891
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Community Reviews(1)
ooouuooouuouhhhhh this is such an incredibly cohesive and lyrical collection with so much impact that my stomach hurts. the grief stricken, yet determined, yet hopeful, and yet full of seething rage narrative that threads through the entirety of this collection was beyond anything i expected and pretty much shit kicked me from the get go
Details
First Published
2020
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Ain't Never Not Been Black by Javon Johnson.