Description
"Ali’s poems consistently engage black history and pop culture as windows into more personal, yet deeply political, realms: 'Begin with a shooting,/ a controversial art exhibit, a mob throwing dung at the Black Madonna'. . . Ali’s willful, complex collection marks him as a poet to watch."— Publisher’s Weekly
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Poetry. African American Studies. "Abdul Ali's TROUBLE SLEEPING awakens the mind. Like the guts of a marvelous timepiece, the incremental details tick with merciless accuracy and timeless certainty. Urban, gutsy, each poem exposes the conflicts of an inner-city speaker. Yet even in the midst of conflict one believes the voice saying, 'I love the city.' Here, popular culture converges with iconic moments of American history; personal and worldly affairs, and a knowing, practiced music holds TROUBLE SLEEPING together as a needful song."—Yusef Komunyakaa
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