The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast - by C I Aki (Paperback)

About the Book

Inside, these poems will take you to a place, an edge, in the midst of the horrors of racial inequity, re George Floyd, and the ensuing attempts of disestablishing the strongholds of racial bias, discrimination, and injustice.

Book Synopsis

Inside, these poems will take you to a place, an edge, in the midst of the horrors of racial inequity, re George Floyd, and the ensuing attempts of disestablishing the strongholds of racial bias, discrimination, and injustice. C.I. Aki will take you there, show it to you, urge change for the world, then ask, "Is this the sole purpose of Black poetry?"

And, reminding you that he is also the multitudes of the "I am," we are given the complete picture of the poet, his job, and his work. Smattered about are poems of love, poems of hope, poems of questioning with some honest, innovative answers too, and we are forced to sit, and think, and listen to the inexorable genius unveiling itself within these words.

These poems are monuments, an unrelenting achievement for the modern Black poet's soul. The world is filled with beasts, but they cannot shroud entirely its beauty.

Review Quotes

"C.I. Aki weaves together words that tug at the core of your soul and show that there's so much more to the human spirit than just examining racial identity...His work poignantly and beautifully exemplifies the concept that the soul cannot be solely defined by social and ideological constructs."

- Lynnette Nicholas, Reader's Digest

"Lyrically ferocious... Aki is not afraid to hold us to the fire, for it is where his poetic heart resides...[He] is a poet of deep feeling, clear vision, and vital honestly. We are blessed to hold his poems in our hands, hearts, and minds."

- Roberto Carlos Garcia, author of [Elegies] (Flower Song Press 2020), black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric (Willow Books 2018), Melancolía (Červena Barva Press 2016).

"C.I. Aki's The World Black, Beautiful and Beast is a bittersweet collection of poems that, like so much else from the south, nourishes us, in these most troubling of times."

- Lesley-Ann Brown, author of Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son (Repeater Books).

"The poems in The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast ignite our cultural thirst for clear-eyed justice amid the brutality of our history and our racist, violent present into rage, joy, beauty, and-ultimately-revolution."

- Katherine Indermaur