Dark Testament: Blackout Poems


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Copyright Notice
 Dedication
 Introduction
 A Note to the Reader
 Part One
 
 No Justice, No Peace
 Oscar Grant
 Eric Garner
 Black Mothers and Sons
 Trayvon Martin
 Sybrina Fulton
 #BLM
 Michael Brown
 Jordan Davis
 The World and Me
 Michelle Kenney & (Antwon Rose II)
 Daunte Wright
 Justified Homicide
 Aiyana Jones, Age 7
 Laquan McDonald
 White Witnesses
 Black Witness
 Rodney King
 Civil Obedience
 Sandra Bland
 Jayland Walker
 Mr. Politician
 Part Two
 
 The Dilemma We All Live With
 Ahmaud Arbery
 George Floyd
 Protest Song
 Curfew Hour
 Walter Scott
 Andrew Brown, Jr.
 The Bloodshed
 Samuel Dubose
 Sean Bell
 Dear Mr. Legislator
 Philando Castile
 Levar Jones
 Breonna Taylor
 Hereafter
 Stephon Clark
 Freddie Gray
 Samaria Rice & (Tamir Rice)
 Elijah McClain
 Generations (An Elegy)
 Botham Jean
 All Our Sins
 In Conversation: George Saunders and Crystal Simone Smith
 Acknowledgments
 About the Artists
 Praise for Dark Testament
 About the Author
 Newsletter Sign-up
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Introduction
 PART ONE
 No Justice, No Peace
 Acknowledgments
 Contents
 Copyright
 
 
 
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 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 About the Author
 Copyright Page
 
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 for Black mothers and sons everywhere
 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
 When deaths occur, we are tasked with celebrating while we mourn. Dark Testament transports us to that gracious yet daunting place. It is a tribute to Black lives lost in our often dark world, and a testament to the fragility of our world, one where we struggle, with great vigor, to coexist as humans. We are aware of this struggle most when we encounter violence. We are assigned complex labels—unarmed, vigilante, witness, suspect, victim—that distract us from the fact that America is a nation uncured of racism, one that still asks us to condone hatred and bias as part of its culture. We are tasked with accepting the worst we can do to one another.
 Dark Testament was written in response to the recorded police killing of 
 A NOTE TO THE READER
 Dark Testament is an interactive text. Each poem is a visual created literally using the written word. The blank pages within represent a pause of remembrance. They are meant to be experienced. Silence is often an act in which those still living undertake to be worthy of those who died.
 
 
 
 PART ONE
 
 
 
 
 
 NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE
 
 If such things as goodness and brotherhood and redemption exist, 
 
 OSCAR GRANT
 
 Please understand. We had been fathers. Had been men sorrowful surging forward damaged