Ellis has something to say about
the moment we’re in, and he is that rare breed of Poet, the kind whose works
will be studied for generations to come, whose name will be uttered alongside
that other great T. S.”
—ROBIN D. G. KELLEY,
author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and
Times of an American Original
THE AMBITIOUS, COMBATIVE, AND SPOT-ON NEW
POETRY BOOK BY THOMAS SAYERS ELLIS, AUTHOR OF THE AWARD-WINNING THE MAVERICK ROOM
"No doubt, this is a major book."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
Skin,
Inc. is Thomas Sayers Ellis’s big, ambitious argument in
sound and image for an America whose identity is in need of repair. In lyric
sequences and with his own photographs, Ellis traverses the African American
and American literary landscapes—along the way adding race fearlessness to past
and present literary styles and themes, and perform-a-forming tributes for the
Godfather of Soul, James Brown; the King of Pop, Michael Jackson; and the
election of President Barack Obama. Part manifesto, part identity repair kit,
part plea for poetic wholeness, this collection worries and self-defends,
eulogizes and casts a vote, raises a fist and, often, an intimidating song.
“Because he’s already a master of the modern poem—line lime
limbo vibe verb riff riddim syllable iconography—a wide happy fearless
intelligence, diligent in the verse, willing to carry the frontier forward—TSE
(not that Other!/but like that Other!) can press his secular psalms about &
against catastrophe into a trance-like density as ‘easy’ as prose, converting
the ‘everyday,’ which his vision privileges, as deadily accurate as a
sling-shot into the universelle—for
xample (about MJ in this critique of the universelle)—‘The
tip of the nose is real, the tip of the nose is a prosthetic [even here we can
hear ‘ethic’ & ‘aesthetic’] / but he can afford it: the expensive peace /of speechless bleached skin’ [my italics]. A
whole new different kind of millennium.”
—KAMAU BRATHWAITE
“Skin, Inc. is a Book of African Names. In ‘The Obama Hour,’ Ellis
examines precisely what we call our art, our president and ourselves.Penetrating, muscular and aggressive,
Ellis’s identity repairman may be a minimalist, but his sweep is epic.
‘Before I was born / I absorbed struggle,’ writes Ellis. ‘Just looking / at
history hurts.’”
—TA-NEHISI COATES
“Thomas Sayers Ellis is that rare being: a gifted artist, a master of
his craft, who does not sacrifice meaning for virtuosity. He deftly manages
both, with artistic and political courage. On these pages he gives us language
that sings AND dances; irresistible
language that guides us through history and complex questions of aesthetics
and politics. And he does so with humor,
insight and brilliance. His thoughtful meditations on meaning, on language,
on possibility audaciously embody our anger and our love. From Washington,
D.C., to Harvard, Ellis dares to name the tradition that shapes him and to
wrestle with that which would limit and deter him. And, in a final, beautiful
suite of poems, Ellis devotes his attention to Michael Jackson, who here
finally receives the kind of reflection and thoughtful contextualization he
deserves. In the final poem, Ellis is to Jackson what O’Hara was to Lady Day: a
poet who gives voice to our mourning, without sensation and in the midst of the
mundane and the quotidian, thereby making our loss all the more palpable. As
with the titles he enshrines within, Skin, Inc. is sure to be yet another
star in our galaxy of poetry.”
—FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN
“Thomas Sayers Ellis is one of the most gifted poets of his generation
and more. He reminds me of the ancient Greek bards who found poetic
and theatrical vehicles to comment on contemporary politics and society—those
great intellectuals and artists Athenians turned to when they wanted something
closer to the truth than the official story. In this brilliant and penetrating collection, Ellis throws himself into the
role of political bard, a voice of challenge and reason and utopia and warning
in the age of Obama. Skin, Inc.
is about repair and reflection, it’s about coming to terms with history so
we can move forward, not to a postracial future but an antiracist and
ultimately postracist society. But he is less interested in recounting our
histories of oppressions than in our creative capacity, the black roots of a
unique prosody, and the power of poetry and the poet to speak to beauty, grace,
perseverance, in the face of violence, enslavement, commodification. Ellis has something to say about the moment
we’re in, and he is that rare breed of Poet, the kind whose works will be
studied for generations to come, whose name will be uttered alongside that
other great T. S.”
