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Words to Our Now Imagination and Dissent Thomas Glave REVIEWS: |
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$25.95 Cloth/jacket |
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction An intensely personal and political confrontation with prejudice, hatred, and violence. “As a black male who is also gay, I and my brothers and our black lesbian sisters are considered ‘disposables’ throughout the world, throughout time past and present, in our own black communities and in white ones. This is clearly the case in Jamaica and most other Caribbean nations, and it is certainly true in the supposedly more ‘progressive’ United States. What will the force of this virulent hatred mean for our futures, and who will decide once again which of us is disposable? And: will we stand together when the time comes for us to face that machine-gun fire? All of us? Beyond our prejudices?” In these lyrical and powerful essays, Thomas Glave draws on his experiences as a politically committed, gay Jamaican American to deliver a searing condemnation of the prejudices, hatreds, and inhumanities that persist in the United States and elsewhere as both official policy and social reality. Exposing the hypocrisies and contradictions of liberal multiculturalism, Glave offers instead a politics of heterogeneity in which difference informs the theory and practice of democracy. At the same time, he experiments with language and form, blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction, to provide a compelling model of creative writing as a tool for social change and humanity. From the death of black gay poet Essex Hemphill to the revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib, Glave puts forth a deeply moral and ethical understanding of human rights to make vital connections across nations, races, genders, and sexualities. “Words to Our Now bends the essay beyond the superficial limits of genre with refractive theorizing and powerful reflection” —Sable Magazine “A compelling, well written opus.” —African American Literature Book Club “On every page and in every piece, the reader cannot help but hear a larger-than-life voice that, for urgent and compelling reasons, speaks a deep, vital truth to the power(s) that oppress us all in our common here, and in our common now.” —Lambda Book Report "Glave glues the fragments of his subject matter together with an engaging tone of voice, reminiscent of Geoff Dyer; but unlike Dyer, Glave does not aim for humour and does not separate politics and his personal life." —Times Literary Supplement “Insightful, lyrical, and moving, Glave’s blistering and beautiful work will linger in the reader long after the book reposes to the shelf. This is political dissent from the hands of a poet.” —Bloomsbury Review “Yields a gay-positive, uplifting message. And that’s something we can always usein these homophobic times.” —Gay City News “Throughout Words to Our Now, Glave hammers at the insanity of homophobia in Jamaica and elsewhere.” —Gay and Lesbian Review “Stylistically and thematically daring essays.” —Jamaican Gleaner “A brilliant writer who does invoke the James Baldwin he’s often compared to, Glave has written perhaps his own Notes of a Native Son and Fire Next Time rolled into one: a deeply felt collection of essays where the personal is the political, the political the sexual, and the sexual the struggle to be as alike and as different from ‘normal’ people as he chooses. Words to Our Now is fearless to be sure, but also affecting, confused, melancholy, wistful, rancorous, and even silly.” —Caribbean Review of Books “Words to Our Now is a stunning achievement of the essay personal and political. Glave poetically addresses the effects of racism, sexism and homophobia, while seamlessly connecting these issues to human rights struggles here and abroad. The essays quietly instruct those who seek to transform and empower their lives by showing that a commitment to truth speaking is a way is necessary for clarity and growth.” —Vibe.com “A refreshing voice. Words to Our Now tackles everything from homophobia in Jamaica to the war in Iraq.” —Hour Magazine "Thomas Glave is a passionate writer and political activist." —Art Voice "Spirited essays. Glave has an outsider-insider perspective of the black American experience. He is most compelling when he writes about it." —Philadelphia Gay News “Yields a gay-positive, uplifting message. And that’s something we can always use in these homophobic times.” —Gay City News "Words to Our Now is a clarion call to accept the connectness amongst human beings." —The Weekly Star "He has a message that he wants to relate to unite everyone. Charismatic and simultaneously commanding." —The Daily Orange "In Words to Our Now, he writes about all of that—blackness, gayness, Jamaican-ness, New Yorkness, on being a Jamaican-New Yorker, on being a New York-Jamaican, on having non-gay friends; and he writes, too, about the act of writing itself." —Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin "Written in an eclectic style, the book displays a willingness to play with form and craft that can appeal to a broad range of readers." —Syracuse New Times “At a time when many educators are struggling to maintain a space for important discussions about race, class, gender, and sexuality within increasingly conservative sets of standardized expectations, Thomas Glave reminds us that imagination, dissent, and the courage to combine the two can give us cause for real hope. Words to Our Now should make us all rethink the terms upon which we select readings and teach essay writing.” —Radical Teacher “Deepening the tradition of intellectual, imaginative dissent of writers like Édouard Glissant, Kamau Brathwaite, Frantz Fanon, and James Baldwin, Words to Our Now is an eloquent blend of personal and political imagery, of compassion and fury. Thomas Glave addresses issues crucial to citizens of this world: the endless warfare against which we live our lives, whether at home or abroad; the warfare we wage against one another. Che Guevara said that the true revolutionary is motivated by love. Words to Our Now is the work of a revolutionary mind.” —Michelle Cliff, author of Free Enterprise “Coming to us by way of Baychester in the Bronx, USA, and Jamaica in the Caribbean, Thomas Glave—the self-described in-between man—offers all of us his fresh, personal perspective on racism, homophobia, imperialism, and literature. His essays are lyrical, heartfelt, and smart.” —Jonathan Ned Katz, author of The Invention of Heterosexuality “'Words make love' wrote celebrated French poet Andre Breton. Each of Thomas Glave's sentences conveys a consummate pleasure.” —Maryse Conde, author of Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? “Words to Our Now contains some of the most politically committed, ethically grounded, and beautifully crafted prose I have ever read.” —Roderick A. Ferguson, author of Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique “Glave's writing is masterful, making the difficult knowledge that he distills in each essay a pleasure to read and still a force to be reckoned with.” —Rinaldo Walcott, author of Black Like Who? Writing Black Canada Thomas Glave is associate professor of English at SUNY Binghamton. He is author of Whose Song? and Other Stories. 216 pages | 2 halftones | 5 3⁄8 x 8 1⁄2 | 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Baychester: A Memory Notes |
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$17.95 paper