Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Anagnorisis, a concept Aristotle describes in his
Poetics, refers to a moment in a play--a tragedy specifically--when the hero gains recognition of the true nature of his own character, condition, or relationship with an antagonistic entity. Watching--repeatedly, on a digital loop--the rampant state-sponsored murder of African-Americans over the past five years has lead the poet to a recognition that James Baldwin reflected as a prospect over thirty years ago. That being that an African-American, never has been and, in no current lifetime, will likely not be considered an equal citizen of this country with an equal right to life. Instead of responding to that reality with sadness or hurt (or even anger) the poems in the collection book operate in "functional disillusionment"--a vocal, sustained and actively manifested disbelief in the social, economic and legal systems black Americans are subject to.
The poems speak back to America: "we no longer have faith in you and will not until you give us reason." The poems are not concerned with gratitude. They are not concerned with coddling the sensibilities of the country's racial, class, sexual majorities. "The white man believes you when you go to him with that old sweet talk, 'cause you've been sweet-talking him ever since he brought you here," Malcolm X once said. "Stop sweet-talking him. Tell him how you feel. Tell him what kind of hell you've been catching .]" Though it may have been perceived as a threat initially, it is more of a crucial communication strategy, for how can a country get better for a people when those people are constantly asked to temper and carefully couch (or silence) their honest laments? The poet recognizes the hell we have been catching. These poems aim to allow readers to know how catching that hell feels.
Synopsis
In
Anagnorisis: Poems, the award-winning poet Kyle Dargan ignites a reckoning. From the depths of his rapidly changing home of Washington, D.C., the poet is both enthralled and provoked, having witnessed-on a digital loop running in the background of Barack Obama's unlikely presidency--the rampant state-sanctioned murder of fellow African Americans. He is pushed toward the same recognition articulated by James Baldwin decades earlier: that an African American may never be considered an equal in citizenship or humanity.
This recognition--the moment at which a tragic hero realizes the true nature of his own character, condition, or relationship with an antagonistic entity--is what Aristotle called anagnorisis. Not concerned with placatory gratitude nor with coddling the sensibilities of the country's racial majority, Dargan challenges America: "You, friends- / you peckish for a peek / at my cloistered, incandescent / revelry-were you as earnest / about my frostbite, my burns, / I would have opened / these hands, sated you all."
At a time when U.S. politics are heavily invested in the purported vulnerability of working-class and rural white Americans, these poems allow readers to examine themselves and the nation through the eyes of those who have been burned for centuries.