In the grand, narrative tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks and Edward Sanders, this riveting collection of poetic plays and photo-documentary poems exposes the human cost of corporate greed and gives voice to the growing crisis faced in communities across America.

"The several long poems that make up this book build into each other with devastating force and understatement, breaking poetic boundaries, regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature."-Adrienne Rich

Mark Nowakis the author of the critically acclaimed debut book of poems Revenants, the editor of Xcp: Cross Cultural Poeticsand the co-editor of Visit Teepee Town: Native Writings After the Detours. He grew up in Buffalo, New York and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he is active in the labor movement.

I could liken this book to a verse drama or film in which voices mix and cross, documentary history meshes with dialogue, photography is framed and given meaning by language. But the cumulative effect of Shut Up Shut Downoutdistances such description. The several long poems that make up this book build into each other with devastating force and understatement, breaking poetic boundaries, regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature. Nowak is a highly gifted and conscious artist, carrying, like the oldest bards, a group narrative which must be told if his listeners are to understand who they are and on what their lives dependand this, in our time, means all of us.Adrienne Rich

As the (historical) segmentation &atomization of the American Working Class continues, a potentially debilitating neutralization of its culture occurs. Its artistic trajectories are not only constantly under siege (erased, minimized, distorted) but also exploitatively appropriated, repackaged, and all-too-often defused of their radical democratic potential. It is in the very midst of this cultural-political crisis that new forms of intelligence, resilience, and social innovation suddenly rebound onto the stage. Mark Nowaks writing is part and parcel of this process. Shut Up Shut Downs carefully textured narratives are not of the recoveryvariety, but rather are born of a bold projectionof a classs needs and desires. Ethnographic insight and methodology is coupled with contemporary techniques of narrative sampling (with all the funkiness that comes with it). The result is a strident constructivist aesthetics that dares to speak to its ownof a democratic vision, while at the same time putting the Ruling Interests on notice. Now, thatsentertainment!Rodrigo Toscano

The hard times faced by the American working class in the nations rust belt inform these poetic oral histories.

Nowak relies on his life as a personwith the sturdy underpinning of classand brings it back, humming. And sleek with seeing and hearing! We get a sharp eye, a literary &philosophical broadening of what used to be labeled working class poetry,deepened with a hard but contemporary lyric and narrative. A much needed paradeAmiri Baraka, from the afterword

In the narrative and investigative tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks, Edward Sanders, and Muriel Rukeyser, this riveting collection of poetic plays and photo-documentary poems exposes the human cost of corporate greed and gives voice to the growing crisis faced in industrial communities across America.

Mark Nowak is the editor of Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics, co-editor of Visit Teepee Town: Native Writings After the Detours, and author of Revenants. He is active in the labor movement and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.