The presidential inaugural poet -- and unforgettable new voice in American poetry -- presents a collection of poems that includes the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States.

"Johnson takes us on a journey and each poem serves as a guide to understanding black life in America... AIN'T NEVER NOT BEEN BLACK is a healing salve, a sonic ointment that soothes the wounds of white supremacy and daily pricks of antiblack racism, reminding us of the beautiful bounty that blackness always has been and always will be." -- Back cover.

This book "is a challenge, confronting realities that frame an America often made invisible. Within these poems, we see the city as distant lover, we hear the sound that comes from all / the hurt & want that leads a man to turn his back to the world. We see that and we see each reason why we return to what pains us"--Amazon.com.

"A novel in verse about an Asante boy who is captured and taken from his village during the nineteenth century."--

Four verses of the nineteenth-century poem, illustrated by the author's great-great-grandnephew.

"When Juan Felipe Herrera was very young, he picked flowers, helped his mama feed the chickens, slept under the starry sky, and learned to say goodbye to his amiguitos each time his migrant family moved on. When he grew up, Juan Felipe Herrera became a poet. His breathtaking poem "Imagine" and Lauren Castillo's evocative illustrations will speak to every reader and dreamer searching for this place in life."-- dust jacket.

"With this fascinating synthesis of word and image, internationally renowned photographer B.A. Van Sise offers a visually stimulating anthology that will enchant lovers of both poetry and photography. At times whimsical, surreal, challenging, enigmatic, joyful and sobering, these portraits--running adjacent to poems by each of their subjects--highlight some of the most influential poets of our time and celebrate creativity as only these poets in collaboration...