Stand Our Ground: New Global Poetry Anthology Raising Funds for Justice!
Title: Stand Our Ground:Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander
Publisher: FreedomSeed Press (Philadelphia, PA)Paperback, 272 pages
Publication Date: April 22, 2013
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$25.00All proceeds will be shared with the families of Martin and Alexander to aid in their respective pursuits of justice.
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK!
For more information on the book: StandOurGroundBook.com.
In Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander 65 poets from all over the world join together in one voice for justice, freedom and peace. Stand Our Ground is the definitive testament of a revolutionary generation. In this historic collection Black Arts Movement legends Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Haki R. Madhubuti, Marvin X and Askia M. Toure’ are joined by poets of all ages from across the United States and around the world representing countries in Africa, Asia, Europe as well as North and South America and the islands of the Caribbean.
The cases of Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander expose the duplicity of an American justice system that remains rooted in racism and sexism. Stand Our Ground is an effort to raise funds for both families to aid in their pursuit of justice even as it raises the consciousness of a generation toward the pursuit of a movement of justice for all!
The book’s editor, Ewuare X. Osayande, is a poet, educator and activist. The author of several books including Blood Luxury with an introduction by Amiri Baraka (Africa World Press) and Whose America?: New and Selected Poems with an introduction by Haki R. Madhubuti (Black Proletariat Press). He is an adjunct professor of African American Studies at Rutgers University.
In the introduction for Stand Our Ground Osayande writes, “This book has been a labor of love. My love for my people. My love for humanity. I acted because I knew it was not enough for me to just march, or write an editorial or to just allow myself to sit and simmer in the face of wrong. I acted because I knew that there were others like me. I knew that if I acted, others would join with me, and, together, we could create a work that would simultaneously raise collective support for these two families and raise the collective consciousness of our generation. So in the Summer of 2012 the call went out and this is the result. A collection of poems. But not just any collection of poems. Herein are contained –
Death-defying poems
Injustice-decrying poems
Poems that speak truth to power
Poems that break chains in freedom’s name
Poems that confront abuse
and provide sanctuary for the bruised
Poems that escape from cells
Poems that provide a pathway back from hell
Poems that refuse to be silent
Poems more just than the judge’s gavel
Poems that have tasted cop’s mace
stared down the barrel of a gun in defiance
Shackled poems trying to break free
Poems picking the locks on our minds
Poems that transcend place and time
that tell the histories and herstories
that have been banned from the textbooks
Poems that refuse to look the other way
Poems that say what needs to be said
Poems that resurrect the dead
Poems that refuse to sell their souls
Poems that revolt and rebel
that holler, scream and yell
Poems that leave us speechless
that tell us truths we don’t want to hear
Poems that leave the status quo
quivering in fear
Poems that know that justice is like rain
to the seeds of peace
Poems that move us to act
like you know
Marching poems
Chanting poems
Ranting poems
Poems sick and tired of being sick and tired poems
Poems that inoculate us against ignorance
Poems that make us think
Poems on the brink
Poems that challenge us to see
the world as it could be
as it should be
Poems in love with freedom
Poems that resist
that resist
that resist
that resist racism and sexism
that refuse to be conned
Poems for a mother named Marissa
and a young brother named Trayvon.”
Available for purchase exclusively at http://standourgroundbook.com/.
