Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington is a powerful collection of poems depicting the life and reality of being a Black American. It presents the reality of Black History with a personal touch. It’s powerful in the way that it cuts straight to the point and makes you think about all the things you’ve seen reported in the news, or stories that families have shared about their own experiences. I was genuinely surprised by how forward and honest this book was depicting the brutal reality of our world. There were quite a few poems in this book that I had bookmarked, but recommend just one, it would be “The Art of Porch Swinging.”

The title of the poem leads you into a sense of false security, only for it to be juxtaposed with the opening lines. “Six shot on a porch in Cleveland. / A three-year-old shot on her parents’ front porch. / Fearing unrest, police clear the street, / fire paint rounds at porch watchers.” It was brilliant to have the clash between the calm title and the brutal lines because it puts you in the place of those porch watchers, lives ended short where their only crime was enjoying nature. The collection of poems in this book are beautiful and brutal at the same time, like the lack of water on a beach before a tsunami.

Jabrie Johnson is a student at Finger Lakes Community College, working toward her associate degree in Creative Writing. When she isn’t writing short horror fiction, she often picks up a different hobby involving creation. Painting, sewing, knitting, video-making, you name it.