beautiful ashe: memoirs of a sweet black boy & other poems
beautiful ashe: memoirs of a sweet black boy & other poems is a book project conceived of by BLACK Lawrence co-founding member Tai Amri Spann-Ryan. Because he considers this time to be one where Black people are seeking continued liberation that has been exacerbated by quarantine’s loss of income that disproportionately affects Black people, he wants it to be a project that provides financial security and incentive to other Black artists. He has brought on a writing and sound editor Alex Kimball Williams, the photographer Leah Evans and heading layout and formatting is Mercedes Lucero, all members of BLACK Lawrence and Black artists extraordinaires. Alex is also heading an audiobook version that would include the work and input of local musicians.
The book itself consists of a poetic memoir that speaks to the difficulties growing as a Black male on the East Coast of the United States. Tai Amri speaks to these difficulties. The homophobia, the sexism, and the classism that has run rampant in the country is faced and addressed in brutal and vulnerable realism. The other 6 sections address themes as diverse as the struggles to create equality in a hyper-capitalist environment and reach towards atonement with an African-self, when the American-self seeks to engulf and silence it. It is poetry meant to bolster the resolve to continue towards (r)evolution and deals with the contradictions and counterrevolutionary aspects of the self. It is a work that hopes to add to the growing need for racial healing of intersectionality in the Midwestern state of mind. The purpose is to continue the fight and to highlight the light Black people bring to the liberation of all people.
Funds are being sought from multiple streams and we hope that as many as possible are able to help to support this work and ensure that Eastern Kansas continues to be known as a place that has a unique artistic viewpoint from the middle of the country.
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