Simone John’s first chapbook Collateral centers on the police stop of Sandra Bland that led to her death while in police custody on July 13, 2015. With documentary poetic techniques that reframe the transcript of Bland’s stop alongside poems of personal experience, John critiques the speech acts and status quos of race and gender supremacy in America.
Collateral responds to systemic terror, and finds power in the voice, in grief, in attention, in keeping Sandra Bland and other victims of police violence in the room, in continuing to say their names.
Every poem within this little booklet is remarkable, I absolutely love < A Brief History of Murder>, but every one of them is important and gives me views on the unfairness that suffered by coloured people. I taste immense anger and fear and even a little helpless from this collection. This is a short read but an important one.
This was my first experience with poetry and I loved it!! This is truly a thought provoking read and I highly recommend it to any one. The themes within are so current and I just thought it was right on point!! Amazing!!!