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1919
1919
1919
Ebook83 pages44 minutes

1919

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

  • Eve Ewing's first book, Electric Arches, was a breakout success, winning the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and being named the Best Poetry Book of 2017 from the Chicago Review of Books. It was also named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR, The Chicago Tribune, Poets & Writers Magazine, O Magazine, The Chicago Public Library, and Goodreads.

  • Following on the success of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, and the ongoing prominence of Black Lives Matter movement, there is a renewed interest in poetry and prose that documents the Black experience in America.

  • Eve Ewing has a growing profile as both performer and journalist; she has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, The Nation, and The New Republic.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 11, 2019
ISBN9781608466009
Author

Eve L. Ewing

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author of Electric Arches, which received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America and was named one of the year's best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune. She is also author of Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side and the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. 

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Rating: 4.595744731914894 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This collection of poetry started strong, for me, but then the poetry became quite abstract to me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Collection of poetry & photos honoring the 1919 Chicago 'Red Summer' race riots. This slim volume is well-worth the time to amplify these events, telling the larger overall story through a street-level view of riots and violence.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely stunning, emotionally devastating collection of poetry that also functions as a history lesson and a warning that we as a society have not gotten better since 1919 in terms of the systemic abuse and violence against Black people in the United States. I hope people also read Ewing's GHOSTS IN THE SCHOOLYARD which is a non-fiction book about the way the Chicago public school system has failed Black youth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Powerful. I read this the context of having heard her speak, and also reading her nonfiction and comics around the same time. Taken together, its' an amazing range. These are meant to be read aloud.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this. I absolutely loved this. The mix of photos, excerpts from historical documents, and poetry was so incredibly powerful and beautiful and heartbreaking. I learned so much about events I'd never known existed from this collection. One of my new favorites for sure. Ewing did a phenomenal job. Everyone should read this..**This is an amazing book to look into for those looking to diversify their reading list**

Book preview

1919 - Eve L. Ewing

Eve Ewing is a writer of great depth, reverence, and enthusiasm, one of Chicago’s greatest critics and champions.

The Cut

A versatile, deeply perceptive, and imaginative thinker dedicated to the revolutionary potential of art.

Publishers Weekly

The Zora Neale Hurston of [her] generation.

Studio 360

A truly rare cultural phenomenon: an artist who not only holds up a mirror to society, but makes herself a catalyst to change it.

Chicago Tribune

Praise for Electric Arches:

A precision that is both beautiful and deeply uncomfortable … [a] profound act of love for family, a city, and its children.

—NPR

While reading, I found myself continually thinking, I had no idea you could make poetry do that, followed by, thank god she has done this.

—Tracy K. Smith, National Poet Laureate

to all those who speak of rivers

to all those who made safe passage and to all those lost in the waters

© 2019 Eve L. Ewing

Published in 2019 by

Haymarket Books

P.O. Box 180165

Chicago, IL 60618

773-583-7884

www.haymarketbooks.org

info@haymarketbooks.org

ISBN: 978-1-60846-600-9

Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Printed in Canada by union labor.

Cover artwork by Brian Dovie Golden, www.briandoviegolden.com.

Cover and text design by Rachel Cohen.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The report contains recommendations, which, if acted upon, will make impossible, in my opinion, a repetition of the appalling tragedy which brought disgrace to Chicago in July of 1919.

(The Negro in Chicago, xiv)

And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

(Exodus, Chapter 2, Verse 10, King James Version)

Contents

This book is a story.

Before

Exodus 1

The Train Speaks

in November

At the Summit

Coming from the Stock Yards

keeping house

Anatomy: A Treatise on the Manifest Differences of the Negro

True Stories About the Great Fire

What Happened

Exodus 5

or does it explode

Jump / Rope

The Pearl Diver

James Crawford Speaks

City in a Garden

The Street-Car Speaks

sightseers

this is a map

there is no poem for this

Barricade

upon seeing a picture of a car in a school book

Haibun for July 30

After

Exodus 10

it wouldn’t take much

Countless Schemes

April 5, 1968

July, July!

The Day of Undoing

I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

Photo credits

This book is a story.

When I was doing the research that would eventually go into my second book, Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and

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