Finna: Poems

Dynamic poems that celebrate the Black vernacular and engage with the world through the lens of Hip Hop as well as America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets-from an award-winning author and poet.

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular-its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy

Terrific …illuminates life in this country in a strikingly original way. -Ron Charles,The Washington Post

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR . The New York Public Library . Tordotcom

Definition offinna,created by the author-fin na/‘fin?/ contraction-(1) going to; intending to rooted in African American Vernacular English (2) eye dialect spelling of fixing to (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow

These poemsconsider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets.Finnaexplores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope-

nothing about our people is romantic & it shouldn’t be. our people deserve poetry without meter. we deserve our own jagged rhythm & our own uneven walk towards sun. you make happening happen. we happen to love. this is our greatest action.