In-Store: Adrian Matejka: Be Easy w/ Mahogany L. Browne

Event guidelines:

• Each ticket will include either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card.
• Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
• A signing will follow the talk.
• Home address is collected for contact tracing purposes; it will not be used otherwise.
• The event will also be livestreamed for free here: https://youtube.com/live/WXPtSmsao7U
• As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

“A poetics of magic and experience, of submission and resistance, of saying and seeing who and what we are in stereo.” —Terrance Hayes

Revered for his “patient, clever, controlled, [and] visionary” (Hanif Abdurraquib) poems, Adrian Matejka has been a mainstay of contemporary American poetry for over two decades. Gathering hits from six extraordinary collections, Be Easy showcases his singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity.

Traversing the Midwest from Indianapolis to Chicago, new poems explore the twitchy unease of unintentional migration and economic instability as the country faces a future every bit as unsettling and circus-like as parking lot carnivals of the poet’s childhood. Selections from Mixology (2008)—“a post-soul tour de force” (Kevin Young)—reverberate with the rhythm of ’80s hip-hop, while “revelatory” (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) odes from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Big Smoke (2013) reimagine the legacy of prizefighter Jack Johnson and transcendent poems from Map to the Stars (2017) brim with cosmic jazz.

Matejka’s smooth lyricism flows into a singular, indispensable collection of memories lost and found again. Tracing the continuum of a “rocket-powered” (Campbell McGrath) writer, Be Easy affirms Matejka as one of the most exciting voices of our time.

Adrian Matejka is the author of six poetry collections and the graphic novel Last on His Feet. He has been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as the poet laureate of the state of Indiana from 2018–2019, and is editor–in–chief of Poetry magazine. He lives in Chicago.

Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator is a Kennedy Center Next 50 Fellow, and the inaugural Distinguished Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, she is also a MacDowell Arts Advocacy Awardee, NAACP Image Award nominess and a New York Emmy nominee for How to Build a City (All Arts). Browne has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Arts for Justice, Baldwin for the Arts, Hawthorden, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, UCross, and more.

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