Through the lenses of pop culture, hip hop, and black history, Morgan Parker delivers a devastating series of poems about the current state of affairs for Black Americans. While there is humor in it, the humor is black and always sets the reader on edge. A powerful, disturbing, and important collection.

Parker has a very unique writing style. One that it may take some time to get used to. With this collection there were quite a few poems that I really enjoyed and others that I thought were just okay. It was hard to get into the rhythms she was creating with her words. While the language she used was extremely powerful throughout, the imagery with some of the poems was really lacking. With these writings I found myself entranced in what she was saying. Race was a constant theme throughout and I loved that she used it in such a pronounced, and direct way. She made it obvious with the title that Blackness was going to be laced throughout and it is. In some poems its subtle. In others its yielded like a weapon, forcing you to confront the truth about the Black experience in ways that you hadn’t considered. These were the ones that resonated the most. These were the ones I lingered on and contemplated and compared to my own experiences as a Black woman. Overall, I liked this collection of poems. It is something that I can see myself revisiting.

Morgan Parker, for whatever reason, just does not seem to be my lane. Relative to critical reception, I've been underwhelmed by her last two works, a particularly surprising discovery given that her thematics are very much in my wheelhouse. Her use of language as a feeling of disconnection that seems a barrier to me engaging in the way I usually do with poetry.

A beautifully acute, nuanced, and truthful portrait of the black experience of the past and the present. A must read.