Finna: Poems - Nate Marshall

\nSharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular--its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy Terrific . . . illuminates life in this country in a strikingly original way.--Ron Charles, The Washington Post Definition of finna, created by the author: fin-na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of fixing to (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America's vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope: nothing about our people is romantic \n& it shouldn't be. our people deserve \npoetry without meter. we deserve our \nown jagged rhythm & our own uneven \nwalk towards sun. you make happening happen. \nwe happen to love. this is our greatest \naction. \nSharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular--its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy Terrific . . . illuminates life in this country in a strikingly original way.--Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR - The New York Public Library - Tordotcom \n \nDefinition of finna, created by the author: fin-na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of fixing to (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America's vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope: nothing about our people is romantic \n& it shouldn't be. ou