Jamaal May, The Big Book of Exit Strategies
AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE BOOK HONOREE
3:00 pm | Chelsea Clocktower Commons (320 N. Main St.) See map.
Jamaal May was born in 1982 in Detroit, MI where he taught poetry in public schools and worked as a freelance audio engineer. His new book of poetry, The Big Book of Exit Strategies will be released in April 2016. May’s first book of poems, Hum, is a “bittersweet love song” to the ruined streets of his native Detroit, using images of technology past and present to render the “hum” that drives human identity and connection. Since Hum’s publication in 2013, May has won the Beatrice Hawley Award and the 2014 Notable Book Award from the American Library Association, was a finalist for the NAACP Image award and Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and was named one of The Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2013. May has also been on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA. He has served as an associate editor of West Branch and the series editor, graphic designer and filmmaker for the Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook and Video Series. May is also a member of six national poetry slam teams, including five from Detroit and the NYC-based LouderARTS.
In May’s skilled hands, Keats’s urn becomes a Chinese takeout box and Wordsworth’s abbey spires are belching Zug Island factories.” — BOSTON REVIEW on Hum
