Learning to Trust Your Work w. HANIF ABDURRAQIB

Episode 12

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His first collection of poems, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was released by Button Poetry in 2016. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio in winter 2017.

Discussed In This Episode

Columbus, gentrification and the erasure of memory. "None of this is land we got honest." Colonization and contempt for the poor. good kid, m.A.A.d. city by Kendrick Lamar. Bruce Springsteen. "The middle-of-the-country narrative, particularly for young black people, was not very existent." Breathless poems and playing with punctuation. Callaloo. Totems. "I don't believe in suffering for the work anymore." Learning to trust your work. Finding the work that gives you permission. Writing as you speak. A golden age of pop culture writing. Rap's "shiny suit" phase and relief from grief. Nostalgia as a cultural connection point. "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan. No seriously: Bootleg Hanif's next book. Ric Flair. Fall Out Boy. Desks that point toward joy. Writing as a physical act. 

Recommended Reading

The Crown Ain't Worth Much, Hanif Abdurraqib
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurraqib
Vintage Sadness, Hanif Abdurraqib
"In the Morning, I'll Be All Right: Marvin Gaye and the Unlikely Patriotism of Resistance," Hanif Abdurraqib
"In Defense of 'Trap Queen' as Our Generation's Greatest Love Song," Hanif Abdurraqib
"Chris Cornell Was His Era's Greatest Frontman," Hanif Abdurraqib
"the struggle is real, kind of," Courtney Balestier
Danez Smith 
Vievee Francis
Nate Marshall
Safia Elhillo
Aziza Barnes
Angela Veronica Wong
Zora Neale Hurston
Terrance Hayes

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