Description

Poetry. African & African American Studies. "STAND MUTE brings to the forefront things hidden and unsaid from abuse that often gets muffled and discarded. The poet is brave but the poems are braver. These confessions will break your heart, but in the breaking, there is rebuilding--for empathy, for human compassion, and for reshaping what we think we know of men. Victor Alcindor's poems shatter the false narrative of masculinity. These poems scream 'we have to do better.' Kids are cruel but humanity can be crueler. Sure, these are initiation and coming-of-age stories, but more importantly, these poems are baptismal and, if you listen carefully, you cannot emerge from this book unchanged. We often read blurbs with words like 'necessity' and 'must read' and they are actually not, but STAND MUTE is the real deal." --Randall Horton