{"product_id":"detroit-workers-teachers-lovers-9781646628568","title":"Detroit: Workers, Teachers, Lovers","description":"In 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.\"\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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-15455248\"\u003eWilliam T. IV Langford\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Finishing Line Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/10\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 46\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.18lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.13d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781646628568\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 164662856X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-POE\"\u003ePoetry\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-POE000000\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Finishing Line Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44522864574701,"sku":"9781646628568","price":22.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_c391c928-5f69-46aa-97ef-f2aee6492efe.jpg?v=1701308619","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/detroit-workers-teachers-lovers-9781646628568","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}