by Zetta Elliott; illustrated by Loveis Wise

Turn to the Acknowledgements section in the final pages of this short 100 page collection of poetry-activism and you will see that the author knowingly divines that there will be more black women to mourn and remember before long. Not wrong, two months after this book was released Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her bed when she was fatally shot and killed by Louisville police officers. She was 26. She liked playing cards with friends and family. She worked hard as an EMT with ambitions of becoming an ER nurse. And then in the middle of the night on March 13, 2020, her life was taken for no good reason. Even though this book was written before Breonna's murder, her story echoes on every page, every poem speaks her name. How is that possible? How is it possible that our slaughter of black women is so dreadfully predictable? Elliot's poems (wonderfully illustrated by Loveis Wise) are both a tribute and a call to action. “Elliott offers up a poetic love letter exploring a vast range of topics: Black Lives Matter; microaggressions such as hair touching; violence against black women and girls; the Middle Passage; what self-care and resistance can look like; not fitting into prescribed definitions of blackness; and surviving in the U.S. ” –Kirkus Reviews

#sayhername #justiceforbreonnataylor