Smoking Lovely's explorations of poetry and the neoliberal city at the intersection of community and commodity. In this radically revised new edition, Perdomo shifts the poem into mostly second person, thereby further accentuating its self-reflexive and complex exploration of self-and/as-other, and of the simultaneous othering, commodification, and spectacularization of Afro-diasporic bodies and cultural forms.
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"Smoking Lovely, Willie Perdomo 's second volume of poetry, confirms his hard won place in American letters. Addiction, poverty, class and racial identity, love and recovery are examined with a devastating and streetwise voice, marked with irrefutable artistic integrity and craftsmanship. These poems sing, howl, and heal with a sad and searing wisdom akin to genius. Smoking Lovely is destined to become not just one of the best books of the year but of the decade."
--Sapphire, author of Push
"Willie Perdomo is an electric poet. His poems crackle with energy. The poet knows his beloved barrio, what to celebrate and what to condemn. He also has the courage to confront his own demons. There is raw pain in this voice, and much more: humor, irony, music, intelligence."
--Martin Espada, author of City of Coughing
"Willie Perdomo is a necessary and insistent voice in the current American literary scene."
--Publishers Weekly
"Smoking Lovely sings to both the eyes and ears, placing oral and visual patterns in dramatic tension with one another. And the pleasure offered by this vibrant collection is precisely the pleasure of watching and hearing the polyphonic performance in vibrant poetic terms. "
--American Book Review
Praise for The Crazy Bunch:
"Set during one weekend in the early 1990s, Perdomo 's fourth book celebrates a crew of hip-hop-loving friends in East Harlem with his customary heart and bravura language."
--New York Times Book Review
Other books by Willie Perdomo
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Smoking Lovely
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The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4
Edited by Felicia Chavez, José Olivarez, et al.