1919
By Eve L. Ewing
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
NPR Best Books of 2019
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2019
Chicago Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2019
O Magazine Best Books by Women of Summer 2019
The Millions Must-Read Poetry of June 2019
LitHub Most Anticipated Reads of Summer 2019
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation’s Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event—which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries—through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.
Eve L. Ewing
Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author of Electric Arches, which received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America and was named one of the year's best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune. She is also author of Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side and the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues.
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Reviews for 1919
47 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This collection of poetry started strong, for me, but then the poetry became quite abstract to me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Collection of poetry & photos honoring the 1919 Chicago 'Red Summer' race riots. This slim volume is well-worth the time to amplify these events, telling the larger overall story through a street-level view of riots and violence.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely stunning, emotionally devastating collection of poetry that also functions as a history lesson and a warning that we as a society have not gotten better since 1919 in terms of the systemic abuse and violence against Black people in the United States. I hope people also read Ewing's GHOSTS IN THE SCHOOLYARD which is a non-fiction book about the way the Chicago public school system has failed Black youth.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Powerful. I read this the context of having heard her speak, and also reading her nonfiction and comics around the same time. Taken together, its' an amazing range. These are meant to be read aloud.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this. I absolutely loved this. The mix of photos, excerpts from historical documents, and poetry was so incredibly powerful and beautiful and heartbreaking. I learned so much about events I'd never known existed from this collection. One of my new favorites for sure. Ewing did a phenomenal job. Everyone should read this..**This is an amazing book to look into for those looking to diversify their reading list**
Book preview
1919 - Eve L. Ewing
Eve Ewing is a writer of great depth, reverence, and enthusiasm, one of Chicago’s greatest critics and champions.
—The Cut
A versatile, deeply perceptive, and imaginative thinker dedicated to the revolutionary potential of art.
—Publishers Weekly
The Zora Neale Hurston of [her] generation.
—Studio 360
A truly rare cultural phenomenon: an artist who not only holds up a mirror to society, but makes herself a catalyst to change it.
—Chicago Tribune
Praise for Electric Arches:
A precision that is both beautiful and deeply uncomfortable … [a] profound act of love for family, a city, and its children.
—NPR
While reading, I found myself continually thinking, I had no idea you could make poetry do that, followed by, thank god she has done this.
—Tracy K. Smith, National Poet Laureate
to all those who speak of rivers
to all those who made safe passage and to all those lost in the waters
© 2019 Eve L. Ewing
Published in 2019 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
info@haymarketbooks.org
ISBN: 978-1-60846-600-9
Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.
Printed in Canada by union labor.
Cover artwork by Brian Dovie Golden, www.briandoviegolden.com.
Cover and text design by Rachel Cohen.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The report contains recommendations, which, if acted upon, will make impossible, in my opinion, a repetition of the appalling tragedy which brought disgrace to Chicago in July of 1919.
(The Negro in Chicago, xiv)
And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
(Exodus, Chapter 2, Verse 10, King James Version)
Contents
This book is a story.
Before
Exodus 1
The Train Speaks
in November
At the Summit
Coming from the Stock Yards
keeping house
Anatomy: A Treatise on the Manifest Differences of the Negro
True Stories About the Great Fire
What Happened
Exodus 5
or does it explode
Jump / Rope
The Pearl Diver
James Crawford Speaks
City in a Garden
The Street-Car Speaks
sightseers
this is a map
there is no poem for this
Barricade
upon seeing a picture of a car in a school book
Haibun for July 30
After
Exodus 10
it wouldn’t take much
Countless Schemes
April 5, 1968
July, July!
The Day of Undoing
I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Photo credits
This book is a story.
When I was doing the research that would eventually go into my second book, Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and