New Reviews: Poetry & Drama

Kevin Young has become a major figure in poetry--among other jobs, he's the poetry editor for THE NEW YORKER--and this self-narrated audiobook helps listeners understand why. While the poems are thoroughly grounded in the African-American experience, there are few cultural references that will be obscure or alien to other Americans. Young draws on the common ground of music,... Read More

Fatimah Asghar, co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls, beautifully writes and delivers narrative poems about what it means to be a Pakistani, a Muslim, and a woman in America. In a voice that is steady and piercing, she pushes boundaries with her words of longing for maternal comforts and discomforts. She is unafraid to speak of cultural atrocities. Her voice... Read More

The Alliance Theatre of Atlanta has created a dramatic version of Trethewey's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, and it is a marvelous presentation of the poetry. January LaVoy is The Poet, reading the works that Trethewey wrote for and about her mother, and Thomas Neal Antwon Ghant is The Native Guard, representing the men who traded service in the Union army for freedom... Read More