Unrest
Simone White
May 2013
indicative of the kind of innovation that disentangles “race” from tropes.
Dawn Lundy Martin
Unrest began as a spontaneous response to and prayer of thanks for David Walker’s 1829 Appeal (the full title is quoted in one section of the series), an uncompromising attack on slavery and performance of black “enlightenment.” The serial poem’s abecedarian form is activated by thinking about what it means to be deeply engaged in writing when writing is forbidden: the subject(s) of the poems contemplate epic alliances for the black who reads and writes (Shakespeare, Henry James, the poet’s sister, and, of course, Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan), and enacts, reveling in contemporary displays of opulent black speech, experiences of both joy and sorrow.
This is the second printing.
About the Author
Simone White is the author of Dear Angel of Death, Of Being Dispersed, and House of Envy of All the World, and the chapbooks Unrest and Dolly (with Kim Thomas). Recent poems and prose have appeared in BOMB, New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and Frieze. In 2017, she received the Whiting Award for poetry. She lives in Brooklyn.
Praise
Simone White’s Unrest is indicative of the kind of innovation that disentangles “race” from tropes.
Dawn Lundy Martin
[these poems] signify, call, and rope back Inward where one can be held so close, something intimidating... It is difficult to encounter a chapbook (repeat; chapbook) with this many layers, that is so dastardly readable yet contains and spreads such an intellectual capacity, bigger than itself.
Ken Walker
In the News
Links
Other UDP titles by Simone White here
Simone White interviewed in the LA Review of Books blog
Video lecture on erotic power / erotic punishment
Simone White’s page on the Poetry Foundation
A conversation with Simone White & Tina Campt at School for Temporary Liveness
Publication Details
36 pp, 7 x 5 in
Publication Date: May 01 2013
Distribution: Direct Only
Series: Dossier