There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis

by Tracy K. Smith, John Freeman Narrated by Robin Miles, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Anthony Rey Perez, Kay Eluvian, Kyla Garcia, Kaleo Griffith, Greta Jung, Tanis Parenteau, Quincy Surasmith, Pej Vahdat

Overview

This kaleidoscopic portrait of an unprecedented time brings together some of our most treasured writers today-Edwidge Danticat, Layli Long Soldier, Monica Youn, Julia Alvarez, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor-to give voice to the unthinkable grief and hopeful possibilities born in an era of revolution and change.

“A maelstrom of grief, anger, fear and confusion, with glimmers of gratitude and hope: a comprehensive emotional document of a moment.”-New York Times Book Review

Now is an extraordinary time. Across the country, people are losing their loved ones, their livelihoods, their homes, and even their own lives to COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, countless protests erupted this summer over the recurring loss of Black lives. Reverberations of shock and outrage remain with us all. There's a Revolution Outside, My Love captures and articulates all of these roiling sentiments unleashed by a profound national reckoning.

Drawing its title from a powerful letter to her son by Kirsten West Savali, the book fans out from there, offering a rich and intimate view of the change we underwent. Composed of searing letters, essays, poems, reflections, and screeds, There's a Revolution Outside, My Love highlights the work of some of our most powerful and insightful writers who hail from across a range of backgrounds and from almost all fifty states. Among them, these writers have brought home four Pulitzers, two National Book Awards, a fistful of Whitings, and numerous citations in best American poetry, short story, and essay compilations. They are noisy with beauty, and their pieces ring louder and clearer than ever before.

Galvanizing and lyrical, this is a deeply profound anthology of writing filled with pain and beauty, warmth and intimacy. A remarkable feat of empathy, There's a Revolution Outside, My Love offers solace in a time of swirling protest, change, and violence-reminding us of the human scale of the upheaval, and providing hope for a kinder future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

These testimonials from professors, poets, novelists and activists are centered on last summer’s protests against the police killings of Black people, but they tie connective threads between many countries and their crises…Together this book is a maelstrom of grief, anger, fear and confusion, with glimmers of gratitude and hope: a comprehensive emotional document of a moment." —Sebastian Modak, The New York Times

“Angry, rueful, and defiant, the impressive roster of award-winning writers and academics portrays a nation wracked by pain…. An eloquent and urgent collection.” —Kirkus, starred review

“A potent and momentous in-the-moment response to an urgent and indelible time.” —Booklist

“Written from the inner chambers of the heart, resonating with the questions that keep us up at night, and offering the recognition and generosity…. This book is a promise, a solace, a sounding of our cries for justice and need for love. It’s nothing short of essential.” —Garnette Cadogan, Literary Hub

“Dynamic…captures the remarkable nature of the last year.” —Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine
 
“Revelatory collection of heartfelt reflections…Forty treasured poets, scholars, and essayists document their experience of international racial reawakening…and consider them alongside their survival of dueling pandemics, namely COVID-19 and systemic racism.” —Oprah Magazine, “The Best Books to Pick Up This May”

“This powerful, riveting collection gives us the community we have longed for during the past year, the connection we have missed. It tells us the truth; it tells us what it is like.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2021-03-12
Reflections on racism from 40 writers.

Pulitzer Prize winner Smith, former poet laureate of the U.S., and Freeman, an executive editor at Knopf, gather poems, letters, and essays, most previously published in Literary Hub, bearing witness to systemic oppression and racial injustice. Angry, rueful, and defiant, the impressive roster of award-winning writers and academics portrays a nation wracked by pain. “There’s a revolution outside, my love,” journalist and cultural critic Kirsten West Savali writes in a moving letter to her son. “Where in the world is safe for you, my beautiful, beautiful boy?” Jasmon Drain, addressing his daughter, reflects that during the pandemic, she must wear two masks: one, her skin color; the other, protection against the virus. “Your born mask brought fear. This new one redoubles it,” he writes. “There’s no vaccine for who you’ll be or how you’ll be viewed, for the unseen or visible parts that will ofttimes be assumed of you.” Protests against police brutality inspired many pieces: “Like an arrow,” writes Native American writer Layli Long Soldier, “the images of George Floyd pierced my soul.” Living in Madison, Wisconsin, where he teaches creative writing, poet Amaud Jamaul Johnson describes “the Fault Lines of Midwestern Racism”: insidious expressions of prejudice among Whites who treat him like “a kind of mascot, a pet Negro, that one Black body in the coffee shop or at the private pool; I’ve become everyone’s one Black friend.” Francisco Goldman compares racist dictators to Trump: “The aftereffects of an evil dictatorship are hard to get rid of, to scrub clean. It usually involves a steadfast struggle, and justice is the only remedy.” In “A Letter to Black America,” Smith invokes Black solidarity, exhorting her readers to “revel in the depth and the flair and the belief and the secrecy of Blackness. We are lucky to be who we are, and we know it.” Other contributors include Edwidge Danticat, Gregory Pardlo, Ross Gay, and Camille T. Dungy.

An eloquent and urgent collection.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173391360
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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