Building on an essay written for the New Yorker in 2020, Elizabeth Alexander touches upon what appear to be the key elements of the Black experience of the past decade, or more. Her initial concern is the Trayvon generation, those young people who have come of age since Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. This includes her two sons who are now young men. She writes of her fears as a Black mother who sends her sons out into a dangerous world, but also of her pride in their accomplishments and those of their friends. But how will this generation ever feel safe in this country after all they have witnessed since Trayvon’s death.

Using cultural stepping stones of art, music and poetry, Alexander takes us through some of the more harrowing moments of Black experience in the past century. Her stories of Angola prison are like none I’ve read before. I found myself noting names of films, books of poetry and poets that are new to me as I read.

As a white person, my life experience cannot be the same as Alexander’s but I do share a sense of horror when I see what happened to George Floyd and many other events of recent years. And her worries for her sons and other Black children feel so very real given what is happening in our world.

Alexander is a brilliant wordsmith and brings her experience and those of the people she celebrates to life in a meaningful way. I recommend this book and plan to read it again.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Expanding upon Elizabeth Alexander's New Yorker essay by the same title, The Trayvon Generation reflects on the precarious and precious tenacity of Black life in America, set against the 2020 summer of Black Lives Matter protests. The gorgeously haunting prose threads together personal anecdote and literary criticism to explore the multifaceted violences of a long history of systemic racism in America, while also offering a loving tribute to the Black life that flourished in its midst. I am especially drawn to the concepts of memorials/remembrance in both reckoning with this history of violence and also insisting on honoring the memory of its victims with dignity. The analyses of poems and art in the collection also illuminate the potentiality of imagination, culture, and joy as tools of resistance to create a new future. The title essay, addressed to the author's sons, and the essay on inmates in Angola are especially compelling.

THE TRAYVON GENERATION by Elizabeth Alexander will be on our Library shelves soon. It received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus ("A dynamic critique on the sprawling effects of racism and its effects on today's youth."), Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly ("a thought-provoking must-read"). Alexander, an award-winning author, poet, and scholar, offers a series of essays on racism in America and the impact especially on Black youth, who have virtually witnessed the stories of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland ... well, the list goes on and on. Alexander uses poetry and art in surprising ways to convey her points. She also references history and, for me, one of the more informative sections was her discussion of the 1966 debates over Land of the Free, an eighth-grade history textbook by John Hope Franklin; there were many echoes of today's debate about critical race theory. Our students and teachers will find much to discuss here.

Elizabeth Alexander's collection of essays is an examination of America's ongoing struggle to acknowledge its racist past and present. Her writing is beautifully immersive, she pulls the reader into her mind in a way that is both heartbreaking and hopeful. The art and descriptions of artistic movements woven through the text add to the atmospheric nature of the writing. This is a collection that is "of this moment" and will hopefully be looked upon as necessary for the understanding this point in American history. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an early e-copy of this book.

This book packs such a powerful punch. I don't normally read nonfiction, but the writing in this was so beautiful. I cannot imagine how important and treasured this must be to a person of color.

Through a series of images, poems, and essays, Elizabeth Alexander takes you on a journey through some of the experiences that young Black Americans faced in the United States today. By using the indelible image of Trayvon Martin on the cover and drawing connections to recent events such as the George Floyd murder, the Ahmad Arbery lynching, and the Sandra Bland policing failure, the author draws the reader in with cultural references, teaches them about lesser known historical events, and builds their understanding through personal anecdotes of what it feels like to be the parent of two Black teenagers in a country that increasingly sees those young men as threats.

Readers of Clint Smith's How the Word is Passed will be drawn in by the connection to the Angola State Prison, though I am disheartened to say that it was not until the last year of reading and research that I became familiar with the horrors of that institution. I think that is what is so important about books like The Trayvon Generation--readers are encouraged to learn more and build their own understanding of where race relations are at right now in the United States.

This book will find a home in my classroom library, and I hope to find a way to incorporate it into my African American History curriculum next year.

A collection of short essays that raises big issues. The pieces on monuments, mass incarceration, and black futures were the best imo.

The Trayvon Generation will make you question whether the current generation is more traumatized than the last. Racialized violence is obviously not new, but because of smartphones, children are witnessing these events from their bedrooms. In other words, there is no longer any safe space or reprieve from racialized violence.

There is some despair in these pieces, but there’s also possibility. Alexander weaves poetry and art throughout, because

"Art and history are the indelibles. They outlive flesh. They offer us a compass or a lantern with which to move through the wilderness and allow us to imagine something different and better."

She understands that when words fail, art can cut through to the heart of the matter and blaze a path forward.

I’d recommend this to my fellow white people in particular. It’s important for us to bear witness. To read and learn, so we’re **hopefully** not retraumatizing the POCs in our life during a crisis.

cw: racialized violence, police brutality, mass incarceration

**posted on goodreads**