Joshua Bennett est un poète et un universitaire littéraire célébré dont le travail explore les intersections de la culture, de la politique et de la performance. Sa poésie, souvent formellement innovante, se caractérise par une introspection incisive et un engagement profond envers l'histoire et les problèmes sociaux contemporains. Bennett ne cherche pas simplement à commenter le monde, mais à le transformer activement par son art, offrant aux lecteurs de nouvelles perspectives et des invitations à la contemplation. Ses efforts académiques et ses récitals publics soulignent un engagement envers le dialogue et la participation au sein de la sphère littéraire.
Throughout US history, black people have been configured as sociolegal nonpersons. Joshua Bennett explores the place of animality in works by Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, and other black writers, delving into the literary imagination and ethical concerns that emerge from being viewed as a subgenre of the human.
From a 2021 Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellow recipient, a “rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection, which pays homage to everyday Black experience in the U.S.” (The New Yorker) Gregory Pardlo described Joshua Bennett's first collection of poetry, The Sobbing School, as an "arresting debut" that was "abounding in tenderness and rich with character," with a "virtuosic kind of code switching." Bennett's new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form--from elegy and ode to origin myth--these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What's more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.
Exploring themes of abolition, ecological consciousness, and parenthood, this collection features three distinct sequences that blend autobiographical elements with speculative fiction. The opening section reflects on family, vulnerability, and youthful dreams. The central sequence, "The Book of Mycah," imagines a world where Malcolm X and a contemporary victim of police violence are resurrected. The concluding poems delve into the joys and challenges of fatherhood, capturing the transformative experience of welcoming a new life amidst current societal crises.
Part cultural history, part ethnography, part memoir, Spoken Word explores the history of the western world's oldest form of literary expression, from its unifying role in ethnic minority communities to its ability to give a young black man a voice in society. Joshua Bennett takes us on electrifying journey, from the epic poems of The Iliad and The Odyssey to social scene of 19th century Philadelphia to today's contemporary black storytellers like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Saul Williams and even Pulitzer-prize-winning Kendrick Lamar, to discover the personal and the political in the art of poetry. This book will tell the tale of spoken word poetry's rise from local pastime to global phenomenon.
In a world divided by magic, the elite revel in luxury while the cursed endure slavery to atone for an ancient curse. As rumors of a rebellion led by the devil emerge, four young gang members face a pivotal choice: continue serving their oppressive gods or join the fight for freedom. As they uncover deeper truths about their world, they realize the extent of the evil they must confront. This gripping tale explores themes of rebellion, sacrifice, and the quest for liberation in the face of overwhelming odds.