Contested Records: The Turn to Documents in Contemporary North American Poetry african A is for Avocado

A is for Avocado

Transform your down time into 'do time'

His story bursts with wholly original character

and generosity of someone savoring the promise of his fellow citizens—especially the young—rather than his own achievements

Contested Records: The Turn to Documents in Contemporary North American Poetry african A is for AvocadoBy Michael Leong Why have so many contemporary poets turned to source material, from newspapers to governmental records, as inspiration for their poetry? How can citational poems offer a means of social engagement? Contested Records analyzes how some of the most well known twenty first century North American poets work with fraught documents. Whether its the legal paperwork detailing the murder of 132 African captives, state transcriptions of the last