Commissions Y Corridos - (The Albuquerque Poet Laureate) by Hakim Bellamy (Paperback)

About the Book

The poems collected here insist that with the power to do right, people also have a responsibility to themselves, their loved ones, and complete strangers to be better and strive harder.

Book Synopsis

Hakim Bellamy's latest collection rings with the same power and grace as the people he lauds within its pages, including Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King Jr. He celebrates Albuquerque and New Mexico, taking the good with the bad, and reminds Burqueños that any day when you wake up along the Río Grande is a good day. As Bellamy celebrates the power of creativity and community within the city and the nation, he also demands that we face our society's faults, especially those of racism, racial profiling, and law-enforcement violence. The poems collected here insist that with the power to do right, people also have a responsibility to themselves, their loved ones, and complete strangers to be better and strive harder. Undoubtedly Bellamy is leading this charge, lighting the way for anyone ready to listen.

Review Quotes

"Hakim Bellamy, Albuquerque's inaugural poet laureate, has quickly become an inspiration and a luminary for a generation of poets rising from the Duke City. Commissions y Corridos, flowing with his passion, lived experience, and transcendent perspective, validates his ascension to our pantheon of legendary storytellers in the Land of Enchantment."--Tim Keller, Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico

"These poems are powerful statements that bleed with the blood and grit of having been and seen and felt and lived and died. They have been reborn to tell and to speak, to orate that which must not be forgotten. Hakim Bellamy's collection is a corrido for the senses. It is a song of remembrance and honoring. Like a corrido it has an entrada and a despedida, cradling us in the middle, helping us make sense of it all. His love for Burque, his adopted querencia, comes through in every verse. ¡Gracias, hermano!"--Levi Romero, Inaugural Poet Laureate of New Mexico