
Murmur
Cameron Barnett
(Author)Description
Murmur, the second poetry collection by NAACP Image Award finalist Cameron Barnett, explores the complexity of race and the body of a Black man in contemporary America.
Barnett's sophomore collection considers the question of how we become who we are. The answers Barnett offers in these poems are neither safe nor easy, as he traces a Black man's lineage through time and space in contemporary America, navigating personal experiences, political hypocrisies, pop culture, social history, astronomy, and language. Barnett synthesizes unexpected connections and contradictions, exploring the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and the death of Terence Crutcher in 2016 and searching both the stars of Andromeda and a plantation in South Carolina.
A diagnosis from the poet's infancy haunts the poet as he wonders, "like too many Black men," if "a heart is not enough to keep me alive."
Product Details
Publisher | Autumn House Press |
Publish Date | February 27, 2024 |
Pages | 98 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781637680872 |
Dimensions | 8.7 X 5.9 X 0.3 inches | 0.3 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Barnett's debut--a nominee for a 2018 NAACP Image Award--showed his talent and projected a clear voice and sense of style. Now the poet is delivering on that promise; he has plenty to say and he says plenty in Murmur." --Another Chicago Magazine
"Open Murmur and be prepared for its thoughtfully crafted forms, sparkling enjambments, and searingly true lines. It is clear why Barnett's first book made him an NAACP Image Award Finalist and why this one cements him as a voice of his generation calling attention to the 'fear, like too many Black men, that a heart is not enough / to keep me alive.'" --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Cameron Barnett's Murmur is in fact a glorious shout. These poems shake up histories, both intimate and political. They stir and disturb the ways we look at love, at race, at our people and ourselves. A bold, beautiful, and brilliant collection!" --Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
"In Murmur, Barnett navigates race, family, love, politics, and the intersections of these topics much like a well-versed singer performing their most familiar song. Whether addressing would-be white audiences of a Black poet's work, past lovers, or recent presidents, Barnett's use of language and imagery rings at the right frequency at each turn. . . . He knows which poems and the notes within them need to be belted at the top of his lungs, which are a smooth croon, and which need to be whispered--murmured, even. With these poems, he 'invite[s you] up to the mic' with him, dares you to stand as his song vibrates through you, and see if the bass bumping through your bones doesn't move you to join him in song." --Malcolm Friend, author of Our Bruises Kept Singing Purple
"Cameron Barnett's collection Murmur is simply stunning--simultaneously expansive, inventive, and intimate. . . . It urges us to center the corners, the ghosts, the murmurs, the stories, and the sights that live, breathe, and are essential if we want to have fullness of heart. An excavation of things forgotten, and both unremembered and misremembered, Barnett's poems remind us that "sometimes flecks in the corners . . . are more than aberrations." With poems spanning histories, both personal and collective, and poems that center Blackness as a site of joy, promise, pain, and possibilities." --M. Soledad Caballero, author of I Was a Bell
"Cameron Barnett's Murmur plays jazz on the spinal cord. It tastes like a sweet drink on a hot day, like heritage-made poem. Reminiscent of Terrance Hayes, Jericho Brown, and Ayinde Russell, Barnett invites soul and wisdom to the page and reinvents the action of murmuring to relinquish fear, hate, and disappointment--an inheritance his speakers refuse to accept. Rather than bringing us to our knees, Murmur levitates us, points a new path forward. Celebrate with these poems. Pray and celebrate." --Monica Prince, author of Roadmap: A Choreopoem
Earn by promoting books