{"product_id":"detroit-workers-teachers-lovers-hardcover","title":"Detroit: Workers, Teachers, Lovers - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eWilliam T. Langford  IV\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this bluesy ode to Detroit and its working-class people, William T. Langford IV has crafted a deeply thorough spirit of communal uplift. These poems resonate with \"the gospel-growl\" of those who still boom and brim within. But this book also demands a worthier way forward by reckoning with a city's history of loss and abandonment. Fueled by his gifts of lyricism, musicality, and imagination, Langford ignites and warms a future harmony for Detroit that reflects \"the dreamwork\/ of divergent minds\/ in concert.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-Geffrey Davis\u003c\/strong\u003e, Author or \u003cem\u003eNight Angler\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill's work builds the type of communities I want to belong to, where everyone is welcomed, held accountable, and celebrated. His poems are the invitation, the tools, and the blueprints.\u003cstrong\u003e-Thomas Budday\u003c\/strong\u003e, Educator, Community Organizer\u003cbr\u003eLangford's work is a heartwarming tribute to place, culture, and resilience, through the lens of family, school spirit, and love. A celebration of what it means to be proud of where you come from and where you choose to be. As well as a celebration of the musicality of language.\u003cstrong\u003e-Sarah Blake\u003c\/strong\u003e, Author of \u003cem\u003eNaamah, Mr. West \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn William Langford's \u003cem\u003eDetroit: Workers, Teachers, Lovers\u003c\/em\u003e, you'll find prayer and praise; reckoning and response cry: \"Oh steel city, \/oil slick, \/slipping\/from me.\/City I left.\/Oh steel city.\" Detroit hums in these pages like cool jazz, like Motown Sound, like a layered and loving relationship between son and father-a son and father bearing \"the same stitched scar\/on different arms.\" I adored this collection, pulling up a chair for city delicacies like \"meat and sweet shops, . . .mango, supple melon for the yuppies, \/. . .free hymnal books\/dispensed like soup rations.\" Langford demonstrates he is a master poet of place, elevating his city through every carefully-chosen image so that readers are handed a Coney Dog \"with yellow onion's ghost white insides, \/granules strewn like salt on an icy walk.\" William Langford has a heart here as big as Detroit, spilling out into both sonnet and story. This is a stunning debut collection, and William Langford is a poet to watch.\u003cstrong\u003e-Janine Certo\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eElixir, \u003c\/em\u003e winner of the New American Poetry Prize and the Lauria\/Frasca Poetry Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 46\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.25 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 10, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47437459652786,"sku":"9781646628759","price":38.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/add0a82275d0ebc688f55e365960dc42.webp?v=1778653133","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/detroit-workers-teachers-lovers-hardcover","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}