Product Description

In the grand, narrative tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks and Edward Sanders, this riveting collection of poetic plays and photo-documentary poems exposes the human cost of corporate greed and gives voice to the growing crisis faced in communities across America.

"The several long poems that make up this book build into each other with devastating force and understatement, breaking poetic boundaries, regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature."-Adrienne Rich

Mark Nowak is the author of the critically acclaimed debut book of poems Revenants, the editor of Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics and the co-editor of Visit Teepee Town: Native Writings After the Detours. He grew up in Buffalo, New York and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he is active in the labor movement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #734324 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 161 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Like the acclaimed journal he edits, Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics, Nowak's second full-length collection samples and arranges different kinds of texts (oral history, journalism, etymology and grammar) from a class-conscious perspective; the result is a provocative narrative of disenfranchisement. The five serial poems are a mix of prose, short compressed lyrics and photos; their artfulness is often located in the spaces between and combinations of different registers: "I get angry easily. I feel like swearing all the time. At times, I feel like/ smashing things. At times, I feel like picking a fistfight with someone./ */ Fancy Pants/ Topless Dance/ industrial dreams/ kept alive by machines." "Capitalization" documents the Reagan administration's breaking of the air traffic controllers' union strike and the personal consequences for the workers: "The decision whether to arrest/ a particular employee, they agreed,/ depended upon the amount of evidence/ gathered by the FBI/ and on discretion/ of local United States attorneys./ Capitalize the first word/ of each item in an outline:/ 1. Attracting attention/ 2. Creating desire/ 3. Convincing the mind/ 4. Stimulating action." Also sharp is "Hoyt Lakes/ Shut Down," covering the alienating effects of plant and factory closings on workers and juxtaposing personal narratives and layoff figures within the poems. Nowak's poems articulate capitalism's breaking points as they subsume actual people.
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About the Author
A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for "regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature," Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. The author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, he has also been a contributor to the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog.

Customer Reviews

Revolutionary Poet
Mark Nowak's poetry will astonish you. His docu-poetics blasts through the tired, middle-brow, bourgeois, self-absorbed poetry that you didn't even know you needed an antidote to. If you're already an old or new lefty, read this and cry and rejoice. If you're a reader of poetry and need something that will blow your mind, read this and burn your veil. If you've never liked poetry but have a conscience, believe in historical accuracy, and believe that people who earn a living by the work of their hands deserve economic and social justice, buy all of Mark Nowak's books and buy an extra one for a friend who needs a hero. Not only is Mark a tireless advocate, activist, and artist, he's a wonderful person and the hardest working poet you'll ever meet.

in trouble again
baraka is a writer who readily embraces change, and this book reflects a life full of changes beginning with something as fundamental as a change in name.