"COME, CLAIM YOUR WINGS. LIFT YOUR LIFE ABOVE THE EARTH, RETURN TO THE LAND OF YOUR FATHER'S BIRTH." What exactly is it to be Black in America? Well, it's unearthing the strength it takes to continue to hold one's swagger when multitudinous factors work to make Black lives crumble. It's gathering around the kitchen table as Grandma tells the story of Anansi, the spider, and it's grinning from ear to ear while eating Auntie's spectacular 7Up cake. Black experiences and traditions are complex, striking, and vast. They stretch longer than the Nile and are four times as deep and carry more than just unimaginable pain - there is also joy. Featuring an all-star group of more than thirty-five poetic voices, including such luminaries as Kwame Alexander, James Baldwin, Ibi Zoboi, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, this riveting anthology depicts the diversity of the Black experience by fostering a conversation between contemporary poets and the literary ancestors that came before them. Edited by National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin, Poemhood simultaneously highlights the duality and the nuance at the crux of so many Black experiences, with poetry being the psalm constantly playing. -- Provided by dustjacket.