What things cost : an anthology for the people / edited by Rebecca Gayle Howell & Ashley M. Jones ; Emily Jalloul, associate editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Howell, Rebecca Gayle, editor.

Jones, Ashley M., 1990- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class writings, American.

American literature--21st century.

American literature.

Labor.

Work.

Working class.

Physical Description:

xv, 336 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : The University Press of Kentucky, [2023]

Summary:

"By 1968, most Americans felt that the War on Poverty had been lost, cast out to the shadows of the Vietnam War. That same year, the Poor People's Campaign marched on Washington in the wake of Martin Luther King's assassination, motivated by King's desire for economic justice. The campaign was a multiracial effort that aimed to alleviate poverty for African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Indigenous people. In 2017, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival was launched with the goal to bring King's "revolution of values" to fruition. In What Things Cost, Ashley M. Jones and Rebecca Gayle Howell present an anthology of contemporary poems that speak to the current state of the labor movement. Designed to be a fundraiser for The Poor People's Campaign, What Things Cost employs the power of verse and storytelling to illuminate the painful difficulties of building a healthy life in modern America. Like the campaign itself, the poems bridge lived experiences of struggle across racial and historical divides. The effect is a folkloric journey through America's contemporary landscape. The common theme of work threads through this rich literary quilt, revising outdated American Dream mythology. Jones and Howell blanket tales of hardship, gratitude, guilt, grievance, and solidarity within this volume, with the goal of creating an economically just country"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: I. When Will You Learn My Name?

America Runs on Immigrants / Soma Guinansaca

My Father Dreams of a New Country / Ruth Awad

Untitled / Kevin Goodan

Burden Hill Apothecary & Babalu-Aye Prepare Stinging Nettle Tea / L. Lamar Wilson

The Bureau of reclamation / Erika Meitner

Write this instead / Marwa Helal

Poem Where no one is deported / Jose Olivarez

Hummingbirds / Yaccaira Salvatierra

All in Conflict with This Act Are Hereby Repealed / Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Workshop / Chris Green

Dispatch Out of a Language I Used to Speak / Curtis Bauer

Table Talk / Tomas Q. Morin

Armory / Seth Pennington

The Holiness of Our Fathers / Faisal Mohyuddin

My Father's Love Letters / Yusef Komunyakaa

Second Attempt Crossing / Javier Zamora

Fair Gabbro in the Orchard / Upfromsumdirt

Elegy for the Bloodline / Kendra Allen

Women's Work / Carter Sickels

The Gift / Ocean Vuong

II. Just Don't Never Give up on Love

The Taking Apart / Emily Jalloul

Mourning Hillary and What Might Have Been / Jason Kyle Howard

Dialogue in Diptych with Emma Goldman / Alina Stefanescu

Poolside at the Dearborn Inn / Cal Freeman

C.R.E.A.M. / Danez Smith

What Proof Need You of Love / Justin Wymer

Hymn of Our Jesus & the Holy Tow Truck / Ashley M. Jones

Just Don't Never Give up on Love / Sonia Sanchez

Viscera / Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Propriety / Rosa Alcala

III. Blood and Bones

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Saltine / Nickole Brown

On Mute / Robert Gipe

Where I'm From (2018) / George Ella Lyon

If Anyone Should Fight to Breathe / Emily Skaja

Bringing the Monument Down Birmingham, AL / Laura Secord

If I May Be Frank / A. H. Jerriod Avant

My Whitenesses / Sandra Beasley

Statement of Teaching Philosophy / Keith Leonard

Work / Kwame Dawes

In Alabama / Reginald Dwayne Betts

D.D.I.Y. / Tyrone Williams

Ghazal for Grandma's Hands / Darius V. Daughtry

Family Musings, Matriliny, and Legacy / Cheryl R. Hopson

The making of {#289-128} in five parts / Randall Horton

ArsPoetica / Nabila Lovelace

I Confess / Pauletta Hansel

Questionnaire / Wendell Berry

Reparations Redefinition: Bond / Marcus Wicker

It Comes Down to This / M. L. Smoker

Work History / Kelly Norman Ellis

Ode to the Hotel Near the Children's Hospital / Kevin Young

My Mother, My Mother / Luther Hughes

IV. Every One of Us: Owned

After a Hard Time / Steve Scafidi

Etymology of Land / Julia Bouwsma

O Tobacco / Crystal Wilkinson

Poem in Furrows / Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello

Necessary Weight, Necessary Time / Tina Mozelle Braziel

The Zone / Rodrigo Toscano

Unskilled Labor / Vicente Yepez

"Estan Haciendo Trabajos Que Ni Siquiera Los Negros Quieren Hacer" / Nandi Comer

Yes/And / Ciona Rouse

Wetback / Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

I Am Bound for de Kingdom / Marlanda Dekine

V. We Shift / We Wield / We Bury

Truck Stop / Iliana Rocha

The Fifth Note / Keith S. Wilson

38 / Layli Long Soldier

Thumbprint / Justin Bigos

The Neighborhood Girls Ask Their Manager for a Raise / Allison Pitinii Davis

A Whole Foods in Hawai'i / Craig Santos Perez

Recyclables / Su Hwang

In Line / Diane Gilliam

Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100 / Martin Espada

It Was Already Dangerous / Lauren Whitehead

Food Giant / Julie Marie Wade

For God So Loved the World He Gave Us Vision / Bill King

Model / Edgar Kunz

VI. This Is My One and Only Life

From Obit / Victoria Chang

Most Skin Hit Road / Levi Romero

January 1, 2018 / Phillip B. Williams

At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy / Nikky Finney

American Interrogation / Bryan Borland

Job Opening For Border Patrol Agents / Christopher Soto

Pride Fight / Patrick Rosal

Bull Dragged from Arena / Ross Gay

Somebody Else Sold the World / Adrian Matejka

Behind You / Jacob Shores-Arguello

Waitress / Dorianne Laux

A Crowded Table / Silas House

Que me manden a matar/If They Send Someone to Kill Me / Alice Driver

VII. Something Necessary to Give

Work Is / Len Lawson

Lyft Asks Drivers to Share an Inspiring New Year's Eve Story, Miami 2019 / Cathleen Chambless

The Man of the Small Hours / Christian J. Collier

300 / Yesenia Montilla

The Night after You Lose Your Job / Debora Kuan

Fuck It / Ray McManus

Prayer for the Workingman / Cooper Lee Bombardier

Riot / Katie Condon

All My Mothers / Joy Priest

My Mother Told Us Not to Have Children / Rebecca Gayle Howell

Mineshaft Dream / Alicia Suskin Ostriker

Dream of Death by Factory / Ron Houchin

Factory / Monica Sok

Lucky / Doug Van Gundy

Let There Be Coal / Jake Skeets

When Those Who Have the Power Start to Lose It, They Panic / Savannah Sipple

The Trouble with Young / Melva Sue Priddy

Penitential / Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Disparate Impacts: The Testimony of Joseph Gaston / Philip Metres

What I Mean When I Say Labor / Geffrey Davis

Snow, Rain, Heat, Pandemic, Gloom of Night / Jane Wong

My Mom Makes Friends with the nurses / Janice Lobo Sapigao

The Horns of Horns Valley Moved from Alabama to Arkansas, Gained an "e," and I Returned Three Generations Later for Graduate School in Creative Writing, of All Things / Jennifer Horne

In the Shadow of Babel / Jessica Jacobs

An Hour with an Etruscan Sarcophagus / Jill McDonough

The Way Taken / Rose McLarney

Intimate Detail / Heid E. Erdrich

Planet Labor / Joseph Millar

Shanty / Mark Wunderlich

Omphalos / Kathy Fagan

From Dear Weirdo / Abraham Smith

Idle Men on Porches / Richard Hague

Ghazal Written For the Lids In Downtown Brooklyn Where I Chose My Name / Kayleb Rae Candrilli

What I Learned About Love and Billionaires in 26 Hours / Eugenia Leigh

The Courier / Mikey Swanberg

American Income / Afaa Michael Weaver

May Frick Be Damned / Gerald Stern

Santa Ana of Grocery Carts / Aracelis Girmay

Ruhn'Gun / Natalie Diaz

This moment / Right now / Roberto Carlos Garcia

Burden of Belonging / Laura Eve Engel

I Give You Back / Joy Harjo

Foreday in the Morning / Jericho Brown

We Don't Die / Darius Simpson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813182438

0813182433

OCLC:

1312714511