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BreakBeat Poets

The BreakBeat Poets series is committed to work that brings the aesthetic of hip-hop practice to the page. These books are a cipher for the fresh, with an eye always to the next. We strive to center and showcase some of the most exciting voices in literature, art, and culture.

  •

    1989, The Number

    by Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall
    For hip-hop heads 89 was the peak of the Golden Era and the Crack Epidemic.

  • The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop

    by Felicia Rose Chavez

    This easy-to-use guide explains how to recruit, nourish, and fortify writers of color through innovative reading, writing, workshop, critique, and assessment strategies.

  • Black Queer Hoe

    by Britteney Black Rose Kapri
    A refreshing, unapologetic intervention into ongoing conversations about the line between sexual freedom and sexual exploitation.

  • Bloodstone Cowboy

    by Kara Jackson

  • The BreakBeat Poets

    Edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, et al.
    A first-of-its-kind anthology of hip-hop poetica written for and by the people.

  • The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2

    Edited by Mahogany L. Browne, Idrissa Simmonds, et al.
    A BreakBeat Poets anthology to celebrate and canonize the words of Black women across the diaspora.

  • The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3

    Edited by Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo
    A BreakBeat Poets anthology of writings by Muslims who are women, queer, genderqueer, nonbinary, or trans.

  • The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4

    Edited by Felicia Chavez, José Olivarez, et al.

    A BreakBeat Poets anthology that opposes silence and re-mixes the soundtrack of the Latinx diaspora across diverse poetic traditions.

  • Build Yourself a Boat

    by Camonghne Felix

    Build Yourself a Boat redefines the language of collective and individual trauma through lyric and memory.

  • Can I Kick It?

    by Idris Goodwin

    Award-winning poet and playwright Idris Goodwin interrogates and remixes our cultural past in order to make sense of our present and potential futures.

  • Citizen Illegal

    by José Olivarez

    Citizen Illegal is a book composed in the space between Mexico & America. It is a celebration of Chicano joy, a shout against erasure, and a vibrant re-imagining of Mexican American life.

  • Commando

    by E'mon Lauren

    E’mon Lauren’s poems take artifacts, language, and ephemera from life on Chicago’s Southside and Westside to create a manifesto...

  • Doppelgangbanger

    by Cortney Lamar Charleston

    In his highly anticipated second poetry collection, Doppelgangbanger, Cortney Lamar Charleston examines the performance of Black masculinity in the U.S., and its relationship to family, love and community.

  • Everything Must Go

    by Kevin Coval

    Award-winning poet Kevin Coval and graphic artist Langston Allston bear witness to the effects of gentrification in a Chicago neighborhood.

  • Graphite

    by Patricia Frazier

    Patricia Frazier’s Graphite is an ode to her grandmother and childhood home, the Ida B. Wells Projects, both which the poet lost to...

  • Human Highlight

    by Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin
    Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin pay poetic homage to slam dunk virtuoso Dominique Wilkins, and creativity & improvisation in the game of basketball.

  • If God Is a Virus

    by Seema Yasmin

    Merging documentary poetry from the epicenter of an epidemic with the story of viruses in the evolution of humanity, If God Is A Virus gives voice to the infected and the virus.

  • Inauguration

    by Idris Goodwin and Nico Wilkinson
    Inauguration is a collection of ten poems written in reaction to the onset of the Trump era.

  • Lineage of Rain

    by Janel Pineda

  • Mama Phife Represents

    by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor

    Award-winning poet Cheryl Boyce-Taylor pays tribute to her departed son Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Taylor of the legendary hip-hop trio A Tribe Called Quest in this intimate collection.

  • Milagro

    by Penelope Alegria

  • Milwaukee Avenue

    by Kevin Coval
    “Milwaukee Avenue” is Kevin Coval's longest single poem, inspired by Frank O'Hara's “Second Avenue.” It wrestles with what...

  • On My Way To Liberation

    by H. Melt
    How do you imagine trans liberation while living in a cis world? On My Way To Liberation follows a gender nonconforming body moving through the...

  • A People's History of Chicago

    by Kevin Coval
    Named "Best Chicago Poet" by The Chicago Reader, Kevin Coval channels Howard Zinn to celebrate the Windy City's hidden history.

  • This Is Modern Art

    by Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin
    A glimpse into the lives of anonymous graffiti artists that asks us to question the true purpose of art.

  • Too Much Midnight

    by Krista Franklin

    Krista Franklin’s work emerges at the intersection of poetics, popular culture, and the dynamic histories of the African Diaspora. Krista lives in Chicago, IL.