Beautiful. And Ugly Too reveals through its delicate rhythm, the plurality of being alive. The poems, sketched from influences and drawn from experiences around the world, are colorful portraits that reveal the spectrum of human conditions.
Africa World Press, 2005 | Poetry | MK Asante
Beautiful. And Ugly Too
MK's second book of poetry, hailed by the LA Times as "A thought-provoking journey down the lonely road of wisdom and whiplash."
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‘Beautiful. And Ugly Too’ Synopsis
Beautiful. And Ugly Too reveals through its delicate rhythm, the plurality of being alive. The poems, sketched from influences and drawn from experiences around the world, are colorful portraits that reveal the spectrum of human conditions.
“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter … The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either … We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”
— Langston Hughes
Praise for ‘Beautiful. And Ugly Too’
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"Beautiful. And Ugly Too penetrates, casting an unflinching eye on humanity through a historical kaleidoscope."
—Philadelphia Inquirer -
"Sensitive yet iconoclastic! His words channel ancestral resistance."
—Bruce George, Co-founder of Def Poetry Jam -
"A thought-provoking journey down the lonely road of wisdom and whiplash."
—Los Angeles Times -
“A vivid, yet carefully constructed, meditation on reality, Beautiful. And Ugly Too is a timely dissection of twentieth- century isms through verse ... life and all of her blemishes reflected through a collage of eloquent vignettes.”
—Philadelphia Tribune
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