Poetry Month

This redefining collection gathers multiple forms of "spoken word" under the same motley tent-slam, hip-hop, musical interpretations, and youth movements among them. The resulting brew is both satisfying and world-expanding.

In In the Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap, bestselling author and scholar Alexs Pate argues for a fresh understanding of rap as an exemplary form of literary expression, rather than a profane and trendy musical genre.

Divided into "Home Recordings" and "Field Recordings," Brown speaks to the way personal experience is shaped by culture, while culture is forever affected by the personal, recalling a black Kansas boyhood to comment on our times. A testament to Young's own--and our collective--experience, Brown offers beautiful, sustained harmonies from a poet whose wisdom deepens with time.

Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry "Some of us are killed / in pieces," Smith writes, "some of us all at once."