{"product_id":"blue-front-9781555974497","title":"Blue Front","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA stunning account of racism, mob violence, and cultural responsibility as rendered by the poet Martha Collins\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe victim hanged, though not on a tree, this \u003cbr\u003ewas not the country, they used a steel arch\u003cbr\u003ewith electric lights, and later a lamppost, this\u003cbr\u003ewas a modern event, the trees were not involved.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e--from \"Blue Front\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMartha Collins's father, as a five-year-old, sold fruit outside the Blue Front Restaurant in Cairo, Illinois, in 1909. What he witnessed there, with 10,000 participants, is shocking. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eBlue Front\u003c\/i\u003e, Collins describes the brutal lynching of a black man and, as an afterthought, a white man, both of them left to the mercilessness of the spectators. The poems patch together an arresting array of evidence--newspaper articles, census data, legal history, postcards, photographs, and Collins's speculations\u003cbr\u003eabout her father's own experience. The resulting work, part lyric and part narrative, is a bold investigation into hate, mob mentality, culpability, and what it means to be white in a country still haunted by its violently racist history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Graywolf Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/30\/2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781555974497\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 88\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.48w x 0.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2006 pg. 39\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2006 pg. 65\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/24\/2006 pg. 29\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMulticultural Review\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2007 pg. 69\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Martha Collins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45169510285493,"sku":"9781555974497","price":14.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_1a781348-d595-4414-96b2-dec108701410.jpg?v=1741703387","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/blue-front-9781555974497","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}