Description

The notorious corner of West Fayette and Monroe Streets in Baltimore is a 24-hour open-air drug market that provides the economic fuel for a dying neighbourhood. Through the eyes of one broken family - two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough - Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the USA and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades and the welfare system have accomplished so little.

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Description

This enlightening, entertaining, profoundly political and poetic gathering of essays by the Poet Laureate of Jamaica covers a wealth of subjects, from the odd dissociation of a colonial education to the reality of life in the wider world, the singing of hymns in school and the way their words stay with us, to the many influences--music, art, storytelling, theatre, cinema, travel, religion, family life and politics--that nurture our imaginations and her own writing voice. Taking her title from Kingston's oldest market and downtown meeting place that was almost destroyed by fire last year, Lorna Goodison introduces us to an extraordinary cast of characters and range of influences--from finding a black hairdresser in Paris and crying at a movie in Jamaica to having a life-changing epiphany in New York's Bottom Line Club or drinking tea with an old friend and new strangers in London's Marylebone High Street.

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Lorna Goodison is the author of nine collections of poetry, threecollections of short stories and an award-winning memoir, From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017 and will serve until 2020. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work, and the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Her poetry has been included in major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry over the past twenty-five years. Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has been a central figure at literary festivals throughout the world. Born in Jamaica, Lorna Goodison now divides her time between Canada and the US where she teaches at the University of Michigan.