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There are two things I'm looking at here. One: the collection itself, which is easily a five-star assortment of poems arranged around four central themes. I have slightly mixed feelings about how much this anthology draws from past authors, but it worked for the interwoven themes of the anthology.

Then there's the other element, which frustrated me: each 'track' is accompanied by an outro that, allegedly, explains something about the poem. Nearly all of these are written in an oddly upbeat and tautological style that may be appropriate for middle schoolers, possibly. Often they'll include lines like, "The poet even goes so far as to say..." and then includes lines of the poem that are quite literally on the same page. There were only a few cases in which I felt like the outros added anything. They read as though they were written for a much younger audience than the poems themselves, specifically in terms of language and content. I really like the idea of presenting outside information that a younger reader may not know about historical facts, symbolism, etc., but the specific details often didn't work for me.

Outros aside, there were some truly lovely and heartbreaking poems in here, which address a variety of topics about Blackness in general, our about specific experiences of the poets. Some of the pieces exist in conversation with other poems and/or poets. Even though I didn't care for the outros themselves, I think this book was designed to engage with younger readers who may feel that most poetry isn't accessible to them or doesn't speak to their experiences. Overall, I believe it did a good job of that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.