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msalameh's review
5.0
"Pronouns pose and enclose possibilities. Us broadens the world of me, we opens spaces of solidarity for I, and they broadens the binary. The plural is a collective with an innate potential to embrace augment, and amplify our imaginings in ways impossible for the singular. If capitalism, neoliberalism, and empire place their sole emphasis on my and mine, the social (within any socialism and any social poetics) must insist on shifting emphases in the direction of the pronouns of the first-person plural, toward we and us and they, toward our, ours, ourselves. The result of this social shift will be that my burden becomes our burden, my precarity becomes our precarity, my climate and anthropocene becomes our climate and anthropocene, my multiplayer health care becomes our single-payer healtch care, my future becomes our, future, my joy becomes our joy."
So begins Mark Nowak's 6th chapter "First-Person Plural" and perhaps this chapter most signifies Nowak's poetic and political project. Not only is this book an amazing blend of history and theory focusing on "social poetics" and the poetry workshop but also serves as a brilliant anthology of contemporary working-class poetry. One of the most brilliant, exciting, and necessary books in criticism about poetry.
So begins Mark Nowak's 6th chapter "First-Person Plural" and perhaps this chapter most signifies Nowak's poetic and political project. Not only is this book an amazing blend of history and theory focusing on "social poetics" and the poetry workshop but also serves as a brilliant anthology of contemporary working-class poetry. One of the most brilliant, exciting, and necessary books in criticism about poetry.
mickcassidy2's review
5.0
While I may not have enjoyed outlining this book, I greatly enjoyed reading it! I love how Nowak is able to illustrate the importance of telling history “from below” through the mouths of those living through it. This book also taught me that poetry has the power to be so much more than just pretty lyrical writing about the changing seasons. I would highly recommend if you are looking for a riveting read about the relationship between poetry and social change both in history and in current events.
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