Inner-course: A Plea for Real Love

by Toni Blackman

Toni Blackman is an international champion of hip-hop culture, known for her irresistible, contagious performances and alluring female presence. She’s all heart, all rhythm, all song, all power—a one-woman revolution of poetry and microphone. Like Ntozake Shange, Blackman and her cool, musical poetry and prose weave a magical spell around you, daring you to break her hypnotic hold. Toni’s themes the paradoxes of love; the inspirations and hypocrisies of brothers who rhyme; quiet internal wisdom versus the incessant necessity to have her life saved by a DJ. She explodes at the mic and blooms on the page.

In the poem “inner-course,” Toni challenges the crass commercial culture of love and guides us into her version of real the love of self. In another poem, called “well . . . ,” she illuminates the pain of a shallow romance in the face of a world tragedy and tries to find meaning in her heartache. In “Getting Open,” a prose piece, Toni teaches us how to free ourselves from fear—hip-hop style.

Toni Blackman is your guide into the heart and soul of her creative—and very human— Inner-course .

160 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2003

Reviews

[Scott Holstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never got into the slam poetry scene, although I appreciated those who were gifted at it. But that's basically what this is and while there is some good stuff here, it generally just doesn't resonate as much with me as does other forms, schools, types, etc. But if you're open to that style, probably not a bad book..

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

pure genius.