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    Commando
    Commando
    Commando
    Ebook42 pages17 minutes

    Commando

    By E'mon Lauren

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    About this ebook

    E’mon Lauren’s poems take artifacts, language, and ephemera from life on Chicago’s Southside and Westside to create a manifesto of survival and growth. These poems from Chicago’s first Youth Poet Laureate grapple with sexism, racism, love, and class with a style that announces Lauren as a poet to watch.

    Commando is an aesthetic stick up, hallelujahs in a handbag with a handgun. The first collection from the city's first youth poet laureate is a manifesto for a solider at war.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHaymarket Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2017
    ISBN9781608469444
    Commando
    Author

    E'mon Lauren

    E’mon Lauren is from the South Side of Chicago. She is a Scorpio enthusiast and a firm believer in Dorthy Dandridge reincarnation. E’mon uses poetry and playwriting to explore a philosophy of hood womanism. She was named Chicago’s first Youth Poet Laureate. A former Kuumba Lynx Performance Ensemble slam team member and Louder Than a Bomb champion, E’mon has performed in many venues including The Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival and The Chicago Hip Hop Theatre Fest. She was a 2016 finalist for The Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. E’mon has been published in The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, The Down Dirty Word, and elsewhere. She has been featured in Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on WGN Radio. She is a member of Young Chicago Authors Teaching Artist Corps.

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      Book preview

      Commando - E'mon Lauren

      COMMANDO

      E’mon Lauren

      © 2017 E’mon Lauren

      Published in 2017 by

      Haymarket Books

      P.O. Box 180165

      Chicago, IL 60618

      www.haymarketbooks.org

      ISBN: 978-1-60846-943-7

      Trade distribution:

      In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com

      In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca

      In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com

      All other countries, Ingram Publisher Services International,

      IPS_Intlsales@ingramcontent.com

      This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

      Cover art by Bianca Pastel.

      For me.

      For baby.

      For Ma Dukes and Daddy.

      For the body.

      For the fighting.

      For the sightings.

      For the bodies.

      For the hood hobbies.

      For the hood lobby.

      For the Englewood droppings.

      For L Town likings.

      For the shooters/hittas/brothas/sistas/movas/drillas/ protecting.

      For the block blessing.

      "I’m only nineteen, but my mind is old.

      And when the things get for real, my warm heart turns cold."

      —Prodigy of Mobb Deep (Shook Ones PT 2), 1995

      Speak

      i got a family reunion in my mouth. chuuch under my tongue. loud packed loose squared language. bootlegged babble. mild saucy and slick. quick card crackin gramma. squad a sanctuary on my top lip. throw the handles of my cheeks. what’s good in the hood of your mouth? the yo in my yawn. a fugase flap/flick of tongue. southside schtick slobbered. a candy lady’s cabinet. bud and MC lite/Lyte a boombox on my beak. suited and

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