When I Waked, I Cried To Dream Again: Poems

A. Van Jordan's collection of poems and lyric prose explores the deaths of Black people at the hands of police officers, comparing them to Black characters in Shakespearean plays. Jordan employs various poetic forms to express anger, grief, and celebration, highlighting the othered and hypersexualized nature of these characters. The collection is a stunning inquiry into the roots of racist violence and a moving recognition of the joy of Black youth.

Format: Hardback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 06 June 2023
Publisher: WW Norton & Co

In this remarkable collection of poems and lyric prose, the Whiting Award-winning author A. Van Jordan explores the tragic deaths of Black individuals, particularly Black children, at the hands of police officers. Drawing comparisons to Black characters in Shakespearean plays such as Caliban and Sycorax from The Tempest, Aaron the Moor from Titus Andronicus, and the eponymous antihero of Othello, Jordan mourns these losses. He delves into the commonalities between these characters and the contemporary Black individuals killed in the twenty-first century, such as Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and others.

Through a blend of anger, grief, and celebration, Jordan employs a diverse range of poetic forms, including ekphrastic sestinas inspired by the photography of Malick Sidibé, fictional dialogues, and his signature definition poems that dissect the insidious power of words like "fair," "suspect," and "juvenile." He innovates a new form of window poems, based on a characterization exercise, to perceive Shakespeares Black characters in three dimensions, uncovering contemporary parallels in their othered, hypersexualized, and simultaneously undesirable and threatening portrayal.

When I Waked, I Cried to Dream Again serves as a profound exploration into the origins of racist violence and a poignant tribute to the joy and vibrancy of Black youth before the world intervenes. It conveys the immense value and fragility of life, highlighting the need for empathy, understanding, and change.

Weight: 293g
Dimension: 218 x 147 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781324050933