Publisher's Synopsis
Crushed & Crowned guides the reader through a "museum of bodies," seeking to "illuminate the
darkest corners of our history. From sanitation workers killed in Memphis, to elegies aimed at
resurrection, these poems forbid sleeping. Murals of saints guard refugees, statues replace
enslavers with confident Black teens, a high school teacher observes the joys and sorrows of his
students. These poems also stop us at one of the world's largest refugee camps, inviting us to see
LGBTQ refugees and their plight. These poems center the lives of Harriet Tubman and Frederick
Douglass, considering their places in our history. These poems believe that if we read and live
with the right spirit, the "crushed" of our world can end up "crowned."
