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by: Thomas Sayers Ellis
List Price: $14.00Amazon.com's Price: $11.90 You Save: $2.10 (15%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811
EAN: 9781555974145
ISBN: 1555974147
Label: Graywolf Press
Manufacturer: Graywolf Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 120
Publication Date: January 01, 2005
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Release Date: December 23, 2004
Sales Rank: 277211
Studio: Graywolf Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
With its defiance for any one tradition or voice, Thomas Sayers Ellis’s debut becomes a powerful argument against monotony
A dream. A democracy. A savage liberty.
And yet another anthem and yet another heaven
and yet another party wants you.
Wants you wants you wants you.
—from “Groovallegiance”
In one poem, Thomas Sayers Ellis prognosticates, “Pretty soon, the Age of the Talk Show / Will slip on a peel left in the avant- gutter.” The result is The Maverick Room, the testing ground of determination and serendipity, where call-and-response becomes Steinian echo becomes Post-Soul percussive pleasure becomes a bootlegged recording hustled out of a D.C. go-go club.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Moving From 'The Dark Room' to 'The Maverick Room'
Sayers Ellis is perhaps best known for founding the Dark Room Collective, a group of African-American writers living communally in a house on Inman Street in Cambridge. The Collective was born during the funeral of acclaimed writer and Harlem native, James Baldwin. Upon Baldwin's death, Sayers Ellis and others such as Sharan Strange and Kevin Young felt keenly a lack of "black literary voices" and sought to fill the void.
Sayers Ellis is a poet who turns musical scores into words and ... Read More
Rating:  - Mr. Ellis is "on the one"...
Thomas Sayers Ellis is an authentic voice straight out of DC. No pretension involved, just giving it to you like you want it...real, raw, and funky. I've always been proud of where I and my family come from and Ellis just makes me prouder. The Maverick Room sings while slappin' elitism in the face, laughs while laying out the innate rhythm of the Chocolate City before you on the page like steak & potatoes on a platter...substance is what this collection provides. You'll be full, but you'll still ... Read More
Rating: - A Voice that Sings His Songs
Thomas Sayers Ellis' debut work, The Maverick Room, has "urban" written all over it. It is an edgy and thought-provoking collection of poems. In it Ellis acts as our tour guide as we travel with him -- and immerse ourselves in his view of the language of hip hop and pop art, the neighborhood, family, culture and much more.
I might not be the best person to review poetry but I was moved by his concise, almost stark manner of writing. His emotions shine through. I kept thinking of Lawrence ... Read More
Rating: - Showcases a new and original voice in American poetry
The debut collection of poetry by Thomas Sayers Ellis (co-founder of The Dark Room Collective, a gathering place for young African American poets), The Maverick Room showcases a new and original voice in American poetry, one marked by inner-city youth culture energy that is part lyrical narrative, part "Parliament Funkadelic", a blind of chaos and control through the sheer and simple power of words. The Roll Call: Any half-decent rapper/Can conjure the dead,//Can reach into graves/And accuse God//Of Indian ... Read More
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