This collection evoked so many words: haunting, dark, masterful, real, complex, tragic, inspiring, informative, etc. I couldn’t stop taking notes.
Each poem skillfully exhibits and evokes a different emotion. It’s an absolute roller coaster, using brevity at the perfect moments while driving the knife in further at others, in each line, in perfect cadence.
Smith evokes of all her readers’ senses, immersing them in the uncomfortable and highly important existence of injustice in every day life.
Smith is a masterful story-teller and poet, showing and telling in all the right ways.
This collection isn’t an unnecessarily challenge in poetry/art - it’s accessible, it’s direct, it makes its point clear - and does so in a tragic, complex, and sharp way. It’s not terse, it’s blunt. It’s not always with brevity, it’s telling us a story, letting us into a life.
This collection is like a larger-than-life painting of to the gruesome truths of black American lives using gorgeous colors and complex shading. Brush strokes that make your skin ache and your heart beat a little faster. You could read these poems over and over and see something, feel something new each time.
Any reader will be better for having read this collection.

A wise and thoughtful look into being black in America from the author's youth to their current age. Some poems followed their struggle with motherhood and other's showed the perspective of prominent figures that died in the name of "justice". It was well put together and tore at my heart. I recommend if you're looking for a collection to get into political poetry!