{"product_id":"poor-poems-9780374619855","title":"Poor: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Forward Prize and chosen as a Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e and the BBC, a career-launching collection combining poetry and photography that explores the hopes and hazards of being young and Black in South London. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat is it like to grow up in a place where the same police officer who told your primary school class they were special stops and searches you at thirteen because \"you fit the description of a man\"--and where it is possible to walk two and a half miles through an estate of 1,444 homes without ever touching the ground? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003ePoor\u003c\/i\u003e, Caleb Femi combines poetry and original photography to explore the trials, tribulations, dreams, and joys of young Black boys in twenty-first-century Peckham. He contemplates the ways in which they are informed by the built environment of towering concrete walls and fast-gentrifying neighborhoods that form their stage, writes a coded, near-mythical history of the personalities and sagas of his South London youth, and exalts the rappers and artists who spoke to their lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA sensation upon its 2020 release in England, \u003ci\u003ePoor \u003c\/i\u003eis a tribute to the world that shaped the singular voice of this poet, and to the people finding the magic amid the difficulties they face. As Femi writes in one of the final poems of this book: \"I have never loved anything the way I love the endz.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCaleb Femi\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer, director, and photographer. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Wickedest\u003c\/i\u003e and the poetry collection \u003ci\u003ePoor\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2021 Forward Prize, was short-listed for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and was named a best book of 2020 by many publications, including \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e, and the BBC. Femi has also directed TV episodes for HBO, the BBC, and Netflix, as well as commercials, high-fashion films, and runway shows for brands such as Louis Vuitton, TikTok, Bottega Veneta, and Dior. From 2016 to 2018 he served as Young People's Laureate for London, where he lives.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MCD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51967169036562,"sku":"9780374619855","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_80a9aeb6-9f6c-4087-a47c-e751dda60f39.jpg?v=1768928223","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/poor-poems-9780374619855","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}