Love Is a Dangerous Word: The Selected Poems of Essex Hemphill (Paperback)

$16.99

by Essex Hemphill

Description

For three decades, the legacy of writer, editor, performer, and activist Essex Hemphill has been lovingly sustained through xeroxed copies of his few published works. They are as potent now as they were in the 1980s.
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With tenderness and rage, Hemphill's poems unflinchingly explore the complex, overlapping identities of sexuality, gender, and race, the American political landscape, and his own experiences as a Black gay man during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

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Edited by John Keene and Robert F. Reid-Pharr, Love is a Dangerous Word contains selections from Hemphill's only published full-length collection, Ceremonies--named one of the 25 most influential works of postwar queer literature by the New York Times--alongside rarely seen poems from magazines and chapbooks. It serves as both an introduction to Hemphill's poetic prowess and a treasure trove for those who have long awaited his return to the literary spotlight.

About the Author

Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) was born in Chicago and raised in Washington, DC. He was a member of the poetry collective Cinque, a frequent collaborator with the Emmy award-winning filmmaker Marlon Riggs, and the editor of the Lambda Literary Award winning anthology Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men (1991). Hemphill received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trust, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His collection Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992) won the National Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award.

Product Details

Category: Nonfiction, Queer Poetry

Language: English

Format/Binding: Paperback

Book Condition: New

ISBN-10: 0811232344

ISBN-13: 978-0811232340

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Date Published: March 04, 2025

Pages: 192

Terms of Sale

All book sales are final. No returns or exchanges.

Purchaser will receive a new book that has never been read.

The book will be shipped within 7 to 10 business days of receipt of order via a major mail carrier (USPS, UPS, FedEX, or DHL) and may take up to 14 days to arrive depending on the carrier and destination.

International shipping is also available.