Morgan Parker's Magical Negro blends personal narrative with "an archive of black everydayness" to create a body of work that captures the experience of the contemporary black women in America. In doing do, Parker "complicate[s] the gaze on black womanhood" through humor and grief, triumph and loss, melancholy and hope, and-- perhaps most importantly-- confrontation.
Magical Negro is set in three titled sections: "Let Us Now Praise Famous Magical Negroes," "Field Negro Field Notes," and "Popular Negro Punchlines." Although the poems have been crafted in a variety of styles and forms, Parker focuses on free verse with an emphasis on colloquial language.
Parker's poems include imitations, poems about and dedicated to black pop culture, and poems that utilize newspaper quotations about black bodies. These references are noted as subtitles or epigraphs.
Buy the book here:
Read more of the poems here:
"The History of Black People"
"The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady & The Dead & The Truth"
"Magical Negro #1: Jesus Christ"
"Parker’s Mood by Charlie Parker"
"'Lilac Wine' by Eartha Kitt vs. 'Lilac Wine' by Jeff Buckley"
... and like a whole bunch of other ones
Morgan Parker's website:
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