![]() ![]() At the same time that he relates the difficulty of crossing vast expanses of time and space to connect with our history, in these gripping poems Anderson proposes that the past is never far off-in fact, like Devonte, it lives in our own personalities and experiences today. The way the words expand across the page enacts this polyvocal coalescing, and the blank space in between evokes the vast oceans that first separated and continue to resonate in the collective imagination of the Black community. ![]() Anderson III captures a critical aspect of the ways identity is formed through community and collective memory, particularly among the peoples of the African diaspora. As fantastical as this account seems, in these poems, T.J. ![]() Unlike most of us, who perceive of history as a sequence of fleeting events, Devonte is able to experience all of his diverse travels to varied historical epochs and places simultaneously, and in doing so is able to become a "stalker of history," chasing down the elusive narratives that have been erased or ignored by the building of empires and the destruction of ecosystems. He was the hoofer, the wolf boy calling cadence to Okmulgee back dreams and dawning days where he Eagle Rocked in Cimarron sludge and ragged tails at a high school dance After hours Devonte pushed a rickety shopping cart through market lanes and stone soul picnic surrey with the frontier fringe on top. ![]() This extraordinary quality brings Devonte into contact with a broad array of events and phenomena from black history and culture.
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