Books for changing the world
Menu
Menu
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.

  • Bloodstone Cowboy

    by Kara Jackson
    Kara Jackson’s Bloodstone Cowboy is a reclamation of her lineage, an affirmation of self, and a declaration of her right to contain...

  • 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 Rose 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.

  • 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 revealing portrait of life as a first generation immigrant, 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

    Award-winning poet Cortney Lamar Charleston interrogates the intersections of race, masculinity, and politics through the lens of hip-hop.

  • Everything Must Go

    by Kevin Coval

    Award-winning poet Kevin Coval and graphic artist Langston Allston bare 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.

  • i remember death by its proximity to what i love most

    by Mahogany L. Browne

    A long-form poetic excavation of the reverberating impacts of mass incarceration on the lives of impacted communities, from Mahogany L. Browne.

  •

    Inauguration

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

  • 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.

  • 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.