The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Beauty abounds in Jericho Brown's daring new poetry collection, despite and inside of the evil that pollutes the everyday. The Tradition questions why and how we've become accustomed to terror, in the bedroom, the classroom, the workplace, and the movie theater. From mass shootings to rape to the murder of unarmed people by police, Brown interrupts complacency by locating each emergency in the garden of the body, where living things grow and wither—or survive. In the urgency born of real danger, Brown's work is at its most innovative. His invention of the duplex — a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues — is an all-out exhibition of formal skill, and his lyrics move through elegy and memory with a breathless cadence. Jericho Brown is a poet of eros: here he wields this power as never before, touching the very heart of our cultural crisis.
Duplex
I begin with love, hoping to end there.
I don't want to leave a messy corpse.
I don't want to leave a messy corpse
Full of medicines that turn in the sun.
Some of my medicines turn in the sun.
Some of us don't need hell to be good.
Those who need most, need hell to be good.
What are the symptoms of your sickness?
Here is one symptom of my sickness:
Men who love me are men who miss me.
Men who leave me are men who miss me
In the dream where I am an island.
In the dream where I am an island,
I grow green with hope. I'd like to end there.
The Tradition poetry by Jericho Brown
Copper Canyon Press
ISBN:978-1556594861
Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle toward Freedom
by Elizabeth D. Leonard
Countless lives were transformed by the war that split the nation, and many stories are still being uncovered that tell how the Civil War and the Reconstruction era affected Kentuckians. One such narrative is that of Sandy Holt, who, in the summer of 1864, joined tens of thousands of former slaves and enlisted in the United States Colored Troops. He put his life on the line to secure the Union's survival and the end of slavery. Hundreds of miles away in a federal office, Sandy Holt's former owner, Joseph Holt, worked to achieve the same goals. No one could have predicted before the Civil War that these two very different but interconnected Kentuckians would be crucial participants in the Union war effort. Joseph Holt's radical transformation and the contributions of black Kentuckians in the United States Colored Troops have long been underestimated.
In Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle toward Freedom, author Elizabeth D. Leonard examines a community of black and white Kentuckians whose lives were intertwined throughout the Civil War era. Bringing new insights into the life and legacy of Breckinridge County native Joseph Holt, Leonard exposes the origins of Holt's evolution from slave owner to member of Lincoln's War Department, where he became a powerful advocate for the abolition of slavery and the enlistment of former bondsmen. Digging deep into Holt's past, Leonard explores the lives of Holt's extended family members and also traces the experiences and efforts of Sandy Holt and other slaves-turned soldiers from Breckinridge County and its periphery. Many ran from bondage to fight for freedom in the Union army and returned, hoping to claim the promises of Emancipation. The interwoven stories of Joseph and Sandy Holt, and their shared Kentucky community during and after the war, show how a small corner of this border state experienced one of the most defining conflicts in American history.
Elizabeth D. Leonard is the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and the author of five books, including Men of Color to Arms! Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality and Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky, which was joint recipient of the 2012 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.
Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle toward Freedom
ISBN 978-0-8131-7666-6
