was my life
didn’t start on the day
I was born
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.
The story that I think
will be my life
starts today
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
Confession time; I'm not a huge fan of free poetry. Or poetry in general. Don't get me wrong; I think the people who can write these things are legitimately wizards and I'm amazed at what they can make words do, it's just not a genre I read much of. So I can't discuss this book from a technical standpoint.
That said, I loved the ways the words were used, physically, to back up what the narration was saying. Sometimes they were a box, hemming Amal in; sometimes they were scattered around the page. It's very, very clever and added beautifully to the experience.
I can't say too much about the story. It made me angry, sad, upset. I'm glad it's fictional and horrified that it's based in reality.
I didn't know all the details of the Central Park case. I read some articles about it going into this, but you don't need to; everything you need is in this wonderful book. I'll be recommending this to as many people as possible; it's hard and difficult, but hard and difficult things are how the world moves forward.
Punching the Air publishes on 1st September, 2020.
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