Special Thank You Note for Convenient Amnesia
All my admiration and thanks to the progressive editors of the literary journals and magazines where these poems first found a home: Literati Magazine, Black Heart Magazine, Hobart Pulp, Poetry Quarterly, Soundings Review, Third Stone Journal, BDCwire.com, summer stock journal, Golden Walkman Magazine, Citizen Brooklyn, Gianthology (Heroes as Gang Leaders), Boston Poetry Magazine, Stone Highway Review, Five 2 One Magazine, Euonia Review, and Clarion Literary Magazine.
Much appreciation to the forward-thinking Larry Moore of Broadstone Books. Your belief in my work and ability to understand the importance of publishing these words are not only endearing, but they are also a reminder of inclusiveness of small presses to support and be a launching pad for works that are changing the narratives that have shaped our understanding of racial relations in this country today. Your insight has proven beneficial to this cause and I appreciate you.
As a lover of arts, I must say thank you to Tana Torrent for making this artwork become a reality. Too many times that we forget our history has lynched black bodies whether it be rope or economic exploitation. All my love to Iram Padder and Alpha Arts Alliance for making the connection.
For the glorious poets that provided blurbs for my book- you make my heart melt. I admire each and everyone of you and your commitment to poetry and language. You’ve not only inspired my works, but your words about my first book is an invitation into the poetry community and I will be appreciative of this welcome forever. Thank you Tara Betts, Dara Wier, David Blair, and Thomas Sayers Ellis. During a global pandemic, you took the time to read my work and from the bottom of my heart, it feels nice to be “heard.”
Gratitude to my friends and family, especially those who’s tireless feedback is echoed throughout the many pages of this book . Charlotte Seley, Andrew K. Peterson, Antonio Westmoreland, and Keith Gaboury, you will always be appreciated.
Thank you to my instructors who have helped blaze this road for my poetry including John Skoyles, Maria Koundoura, Gail Mazur, Jerald Walker, Jane Satterfield, Lia Purpura. Without you, my attention to form and a critical approach to these topics and issues would have forever wandered. Thank you all for advocating for poetry and the power behind words.
What would a special thanks be without my students who on a day-to-day basis inspire me. Thank you to all of my Rhetoric and Composition classes, but a very special thanks to my Visual and Media Arts students who’s discussion about the anti-black systems of oppression in America will forever burn and touch my heart. May you all remember that non-black silence and ignorance of anti-black oppression will continue the erasure of blackness as death as a consequence.
Special thanks to: Claree Edwards, Jan Vincent, George Vincent, Geo, Scuba Steve (Azar), Kathleen Ann Sagun, Joanna Flaminio, every poet and musician that has performed at Mr. Hip Presents: Reading Series, Gregory Howard, Cameron Cook, Mikhail Gershovich, Ed Walker, Jennie Jackson, Dominiqua Dickey, DeShawn D’Vibes Alexander, Jordan Carter, Dannell Anthony, Leo Estevez, Jenaro Goode, Darien Battle, Daniel Roman, Ashley Margo, Christopher Brown, Fred Moten, Morgan Parker, Ellie Sarty, Frank Bidart, Marjorie Thousand, Glenn Phillips, Dunja Dumanski, Martin Rowe, Jermaine, Eric Ray, Travis Covington, Jacqueline Ryan-Rudolph, Sharif Campbell, Black Picasso, Leon Ramsey, Matthew McKenzie, Bryce ‘Quiz’, Maleek Geeter, Sharnita Nelson, Johnathan Grady Alexander, Cousin Robbie, Eve Smith, Liza Wagner, Lucy, Estelle, Cassidy Vogel, Corey Lavish, 4evaJae, Frank Wilderson III, Frantz Fanon, Manthia Diawara, and many others. If your name isn’t mentioned, you still hold a special place in my heart.
All the love to everyone person from Southeast, Washington, DC. The world will mold you to be something that is hated, but you will always be beautiful. I echo the sentiment of every street and block for it is here where I learned everything that I truly know.
“An old movie theme song once observed, “What’s too painful to remember, we simply
choose to forget.” That sort of convenient amnesia is at the heart of this incandescent
first poetry collection from Donald Vincent. Incandescent, because that’s the sort of
light that is produced by heat, and there’s a mighty heat raging in these pages,
producing a brilliance that illuminates a legacy of racism and violence and
appropriation and disenfranchisement and, and, and…all those things we’d like to
forget, ignore, disown. All that pain. This is, in other words, a document on the subject
of getting woke.” - Larry Moore of Broadstone books.
