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A Peculiar People: Poems
A Peculiar People creates an entire microcosm within these poems. Steven Willis crafts an entire cast of characters, showcasing their struggles, identities, & underlying emotions. Willis champions the art of storytelling: weaving pop-culture and screenwriting elements to allow the reader to view this social commentary with a fresh lens. This collection examines the author's life experience; the pain of being Black and facing systemic racism.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 24, 2022
There is a familiar echo in the voice of diaspora; no matter the variation of the sound, there is an understanding of the backbone that has shaped us all. It is systematic and inherent, and this book looks at this closely.
Starting with the charity of forms the poems in this collection take, it is clear Willis is versatile, taking known forms of lyricism and speech familiar to the black experience that interprets black personhood in the ways only we, as black people, can; lovingly, tormentingly and with an air of dignity. It is reverence in these words.
The gravity that exists to hold this book-centered and thematically consistent visits self-awareness of the black experience, its false gods, and systematic discrepancies have further pushed us down and out.
The imagery holds this collection afloat, painting familiar faces to the pieces that allow you to pull to the understandable forefront imagery, making these pieces stand out all the more. The ability for Willis to craft worlds that we have seen, on a television screen, in the papers, and bring it into your home to humanize it is stand out.
Highly recommend reading this. Thank you, Netgalley, for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Starting with the charity of forms the poems in this collection take, it is clear Willis is versatile, taking known forms of lyricism and speech familiar to the black experience that interprets black personhood in the ways only we, as black people, can; lovingly, tormentingly and with an air of dignity. It is reverence in these words.
The gravity that exists to hold this book-centered and thematically consistent visits self-awareness of the black experience, its false gods, and systematic discrepancies have further pushed us down and out.
The imagery holds this collection afloat, painting familiar faces to the pieces that allow you to pull to the understandable forefront imagery, making these pieces stand out all the more. The ability for Willis to craft worlds that we have seen, on a television screen, in the papers, and bring it into your home to humanize it is stand out.
Highly recommend reading this. Thank you, Netgalley, for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 13, 2022
I could practically hear the slam in this writing as I read it. Steven Willis crafts words with devastating beauty and tells so many stories in these poems. My favorite poems from the collection were county cousins and an honest question, but all of the poems in the collection were powerful and evocative. There is so much in words like: "you are a forgotten holy." I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.
June 8, 2022
This is a collection of poems that are centered around hip-hop, and how it influenced the author growing up. There are lots of poems about how it is being black growing up in an inner city. The author talks about the crime against black boys and black men and how the jail cell is where most will end up, due to how our society is today.
As a black woman myself reading this gave me a big insight on the constant trouble that my community is still facing today. I mostly fear for black men and black boys. I feel like they have it hard because our society and the media depicts them as dangerous, uneducated and violent and that’s not case.
As a mother to a young black boy I would like him to read this when he is older. This collection of poems has a great message and it keeps you thinking long after you’ve read it. I enjoyed it and I do see myself re reading it in the future.
Rating: 5 ⭐
**I want to thank netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read and review this for my own honest review and opinion***
As a black woman myself reading this gave me a big insight on the constant trouble that my community is still facing today. I mostly fear for black men and black boys. I feel like they have it hard because our society and the media depicts them as dangerous, uneducated and violent and that’s not case.
As a mother to a young black boy I would like him to read this when he is older. This collection of poems has a great message and it keeps you thinking long after you’ve read it. I enjoyed it and I do see myself re reading it in the future.
Rating: 5 ⭐
**I want to thank netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read and review this for my own honest review and opinion***
April 8, 2022
Okay now that I’m officially done let me reiterate… Y’all. Steven Willis is GIFTED. This is some raw talent & vulnerable poetry. I had visceral reactions reading the poems. His book speaks to systemic racism & specifically anti-Blackness that is pervasive in the United States & in his home city of Chicago. I’m floored by his talent. You can HEAR the spoken word as you’re reading. And the dedications to activists & victims of police violence/the militarized state/white supremacy that are at the beginning of many of the poems… it’s powerful. I know this is a collection of poems that I’ll be revisiting. & I would absolutely go to a reading of his. Wow. Thank you for writing this & sharing your lived experiences, Steven Willis.
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Happy National Poetry Month! Thank you to NetGalley & Button Poetry for the eARC of this book. Opinions are freely given & my own.
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Happy National Poetry Month! Thank you to NetGalley & Button Poetry for the eARC of this book. Opinions are freely given & my own.
June 5, 2022
𝗣𝗲·𝗰𝘂·𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿
/pəˈkyo͞olyər/
𝘢𝘥𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦
1. strange or odd; unusual.
2. particular; special.
Although chattel slavery operated as a peculiar institution for over 200 years to degrade and debase the lives of Black people in the U.S., it is no coincidence that we then became the peculiar people to make the U.S. shine in entertainment, sports, movies, arts, music, and education today. Blackness is not a monolith in this country—we are a mighty people. In Steven Willis’ poetry collection, 𝗔 𝗣𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲, he emphasizes just how special it is to possess this Blackness.
Willis breaks the collection into two distinct sections—Proverbs and Black and Blue(s). In this sense, as a native Chicagoan, he gives us his true account of what it means to grow up on the streets of Chicago and to live as a Black man, to have the knowledge (proverbs) and to see the brutality of Black personhood (black and blues). Along with his visceral and politicalized language, Willis infuses joy and humor into the collection because Black personhood invites bellyaching laughs, loud music, and good food, too. The way Willis encapsulates the intricacies of Black personhood in one collection is amazing.
Many of these poems left me speechless and ruminating well after I closed the book. They are powerful, vulnerable, and brave. Some of my favorites include: “Ebonics 101,” “Black Folk Don’t Have Birthdays,” “Copaganda,” and “How The Hood Loves You Back.” I highly recommend this collection to anybody that wants to read poetry that pushes us against the norm. 𝗔 𝗣𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 demands that we recognize our special status in this place once and for all. Willis is spittin knowledge and blues—just listen up!
/pəˈkyo͞olyər/
𝘢𝘥𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦
1. strange or odd; unusual.
2. particular; special.
Although chattel slavery operated as a peculiar institution for over 200 years to degrade and debase the lives of Black people in the U.S., it is no coincidence that we then became the peculiar people to make the U.S. shine in entertainment, sports, movies, arts, music, and education today. Blackness is not a monolith in this country—we are a mighty people. In Steven Willis’ poetry collection, 𝗔 𝗣𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲, he emphasizes just how special it is to possess this Blackness.
Willis breaks the collection into two distinct sections—Proverbs and Black and Blue(s). In this sense, as a native Chicagoan, he gives us his true account of what it means to grow up on the streets of Chicago and to live as a Black man, to have the knowledge (proverbs) and to see the brutality of Black personhood (black and blues). Along with his visceral and politicalized language, Willis infuses joy and humor into the collection because Black personhood invites bellyaching laughs, loud music, and good food, too. The way Willis encapsulates the intricacies of Black personhood in one collection is amazing.
Many of these poems left me speechless and ruminating well after I closed the book. They are powerful, vulnerable, and brave. Some of my favorites include: “Ebonics 101,” “Black Folk Don’t Have Birthdays,” “Copaganda,” and “How The Hood Loves You Back.” I highly recommend this collection to anybody that wants to read poetry that pushes us against the norm. 𝗔 𝗣𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 demands that we recognize our special status in this place once and for all. Willis is spittin knowledge and blues—just listen up!
May 5, 2022
When I was younger, I desired to be a poet. Yet the more I immersed myself in poetry, I recognized it takes a special kind of talent to be a poet. Steven Willis has that talent. His poetry collection, A Peculiar People, is honest and incredibly vulnerable. His narrative touches on personal experiences as well as the ugliness of racism past and current that continues to exist in this country. I would recommend this collection of poetry to anyone. Willis’s poems are so real and so raw they are painful to read at times. His words will ignite strong emotions and feelings inside of you, and are worth every single minute spent ruminating on those thoughts and feelings.
I was fortunate to win a copy of A Peculiar People from a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the author and publisher for participating.
I was fortunate to win a copy of A Peculiar People from a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the author and publisher for participating.
May 3, 2022
We first met Willis through his amazing work as a spoken word poet. His award spoken word is truly something to behold. So i was pleasantly surprised that that passion, fervor, and fire was able to translate onto the page for this collection.
Every poem brought a message/story that needed to be told.
I think this collection is underrated and needs more attention because it deserves that.
Willis is able to write words that jump off the page and illicit such strong emotion that they require a re-read.
I had to refine from highlight a line on every page
Every poem brought a message/story that needed to be told.
I think this collection is underrated and needs more attention because it deserves that.
Willis is able to write words that jump off the page and illicit such strong emotion that they require a re-read.
I had to refine from highlight a line on every page
October 12, 2022
Steven Willis’ A Peculiar People was first gifted to me by @netgalley , but I quickly bought my own copy. This is a volume to read slowly, again and again. On a literary level, Willis’ craft as a writer is on full display here. The blurbs heavily emphasize the form of his poetry, which helped me prepare my mind for his work (I am under-read and generally unfamiliar with poetry and its traditions). He writes villanelle and pantoums, rhymes and free verse; structurally and visually, this book is stunning.
It is divided into two prominent sections: Proverbs, whose poems bubble with nostalgia, longing, grief and joy around daily, cultural, and spiritual liturgies. Willis muses on routines as sublimely mundane as Granny’s Wheel of Fortune rooting-for and Mom’s Saturday morning Motown cleaning. There is a heavy, dark spirituality present in verses like Black Folks Don’t Have Birthdays, which speaks to the significance of black joy around birthdays in light of ancestors stripped of age, life, and to whom milestones were squelched in effort to existentially disorient. February At A White School and (East) Beverly Hills, Chicago finds a family grappling with the nightmare side of progressing out of the neighborhood, into a suburbia in which whites are innately suspicious of black families and tinge existence with fear. In County Cousins, family congregations shift from reunions and church to courtrooms, childhood memories of playing cops and robbers now a hot knife that carves a misplaced personal guilt around the actions of crooked cops. I hope this volume rattle + awaken folks who deny police violence towards black men exists. The dangers posed to black men and children add a haunting mood to this book. Section two, Black and Blue(s), contends with what these dangers do to the black community. Willis documents and process matters of police violence, the media’s capitalization of black grief and disparaging of black mothers, and the nuanced culture of black mourning.
This volume is an education, an elegy, a pressure valve, an assertion, a promise, a grandmother’s faith, proof of life, a joy. Released this spring from @buttonpoetry , A Peculiar People is one to own.
It is divided into two prominent sections: Proverbs, whose poems bubble with nostalgia, longing, grief and joy around daily, cultural, and spiritual liturgies. Willis muses on routines as sublimely mundane as Granny’s Wheel of Fortune rooting-for and Mom’s Saturday morning Motown cleaning. There is a heavy, dark spirituality present in verses like Black Folks Don’t Have Birthdays, which speaks to the significance of black joy around birthdays in light of ancestors stripped of age, life, and to whom milestones were squelched in effort to existentially disorient. February At A White School and (East) Beverly Hills, Chicago finds a family grappling with the nightmare side of progressing out of the neighborhood, into a suburbia in which whites are innately suspicious of black families and tinge existence with fear. In County Cousins, family congregations shift from reunions and church to courtrooms, childhood memories of playing cops and robbers now a hot knife that carves a misplaced personal guilt around the actions of crooked cops. I hope this volume rattle + awaken folks who deny police violence towards black men exists. The dangers posed to black men and children add a haunting mood to this book. Section two, Black and Blue(s), contends with what these dangers do to the black community. Willis documents and process matters of police violence, the media’s capitalization of black grief and disparaging of black mothers, and the nuanced culture of black mourning.
This volume is an education, an elegy, a pressure valve, an assertion, a promise, a grandmother’s faith, proof of life, a joy. Released this spring from @buttonpoetry , A Peculiar People is one to own.
June 6, 2025
favorites, not ranked (and excerpts for some):
1. John 3:16 Makes An Appearance
2. The First Time A Man Attempts To Fight His Father (A Flash Fiction?
‘Rather daddy do it
Than the streets do it
Than the system do it
Than a crooked cop do it.
Pray each time a father’s hands
Turn to pistol or revolver
That my son learns to
Put his hands up
Don’t resist authority’
3. HOW THE HOOD LOVES YOU BACK
‘You can expect your closest of kin to tattoo your name
In the most visible of places
Your birthdate in Roman numerals
Will kiss the left side of your little sister’s collarbone
Long before a boy ever does’
4. DOGGONE
the entirety of it ^ , really. ‘Why didn’t he sit? Why didn’t he stay? Why wasn’t he a good boy?’
such a POWERFUL metaphor. I bought this collection because if you were to look at my Goodreads, I am sooo obsessed with Sarah Kay (meaning, Button Poetry!) so seeing that A Peculiar People belonged to such collection, (and upon checking the reviews), everything seemed promising. I caved
I tried to understand. I did. It did not disappoint. I will try to dive into the world of Steven Willis!!!!
I also decided to finally read this after leaving it seated on my shelf for so long in honor of Junteenth nearing.
1. John 3:16 Makes An Appearance
2. The First Time A Man Attempts To Fight His Father (A Flash Fiction?
‘Rather daddy do it
Than the streets do it
Than the system do it
Than a crooked cop do it.
Pray each time a father’s hands
Turn to pistol or revolver
That my son learns to
Put his hands up
Don’t resist authority’
3. HOW THE HOOD LOVES YOU BACK
‘You can expect your closest of kin to tattoo your name
In the most visible of places
Your birthdate in Roman numerals
Will kiss the left side of your little sister’s collarbone
Long before a boy ever does’
4. DOGGONE
the entirety of it ^ , really. ‘Why didn’t he sit? Why didn’t he stay? Why wasn’t he a good boy?’
such a POWERFUL metaphor. I bought this collection because if you were to look at my Goodreads, I am sooo obsessed with Sarah Kay (meaning, Button Poetry!) so seeing that A Peculiar People belonged to such collection, (and upon checking the reviews), everything seemed promising. I caved
I tried to understand. I did. It did not disappoint. I will try to dive into the world of Steven Willis!!!!
I also decided to finally read this after leaving it seated on my shelf for so long in honor of Junteenth nearing.
February 27, 2024
As soon as I saw Willis's readings of
Instead of a Suicide Note, I Wrote This
and
How the Hood Loves You Back
, this book became a must read for me. So glad to finally read more of this raw, powerful, and charismatic voice with strong alliteration.
I was surprised by the numerous shout-outs to Patricia Smith and the King James Bible in this book. Liked that variation within this collection, how that led to popping wordplay and Ebonic poetry all around. Visceral imagery when there are images. I'd love to hear some of these poems on the stage someday too.
I was surprised by the numerous shout-outs to Patricia Smith and the King James Bible in this book. Liked that variation within this collection, how that led to popping wordplay and Ebonic poetry all around. Visceral imagery when there are images. I'd love to hear some of these poems on the stage someday too.
May 24, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this poetry collection!!!
Honestly after I saw a review from Nate Marshall, author of the poetry collection titled “Finna” I knew for fact this was going to be fantastic. Honest, versatile, and written in stunning verse this is honestly one of my favorite poetry collections. I couldn’t recommend it enough.
Honestly after I saw a review from Nate Marshall, author of the poetry collection titled “Finna” I knew for fact this was going to be fantastic. Honest, versatile, and written in stunning verse this is honestly one of my favorite poetry collections. I couldn’t recommend it enough.
October 7, 2022
This man has all kinds of talent. If you're unsure about this book, look up videos of him reading "The First Time a Man Attempts to Fight His Father" or "The Hustle Speaks."
They were enough to ensure me I would love this book, and I do. It's phenomenal. "No Black Boys Die on Mother's Day" literally made me cry. Again, this man has talent.
They were enough to ensure me I would love this book, and I do. It's phenomenal. "No Black Boys Die on Mother's Day" literally made me cry. Again, this man has talent.
March 11, 2024
Loved reading this - had the absolute pleasure to hear and see some of these performed live recently, nice to then turn to the book and find all of that emotion (or close to it) hits from the page as well. And some shorter works that are less performative but no less dramatic. On point poetry that hits hard, is well learned and earned — a must!
April 24, 2022
Elegant in its simplicity and yet deeply intricate. An beautiful first collection by Willis that manages to encapsulate all the different ways in which a person can exist at once. A must read for modern poetry lovers.
March 31, 2023
“Ain’t it funny, how quickly death becomes fashionable, a testament to how tragic memories don’t fade even in the washing machines.” A phenomenal collection of poems!
Read
September 21, 2023Great collection of poems.
July 2, 2025
Peculiar People is a deep and riveting collection! Each poem dives in reflections of what’s happening in Black America.
December 26, 2025
My favorite poem in here was “wishes for the rich,” however they are all worth.
April 8, 2023
These poems reminded me of my childhood and spending summers with my cousins in the country. The black experience through word play.
May 30, 2022
"Mother has always been a womb for revolution..." —Steven Willis
'Peculiar People,' is a beautiful collection of poetry on the author's experience as a black man. The vivid style in which he writes, makes people and places come alive on the page.
After reading, I discovered many of the poems in spoken word form, on Youtube and was able to experience them anew through the author's performances.
I didn't relate to all of the poems in the collection, but some of my favourites included, "This is Ebonics 101," and "A Scolding for the Brother, Dylan".
This collection was a thoughtful and flavourful addition to my Poetry Month explorations.
'Peculiar People,' is a beautiful collection of poetry on the author's experience as a black man. The vivid style in which he writes, makes people and places come alive on the page.
After reading, I discovered many of the poems in spoken word form, on Youtube and was able to experience them anew through the author's performances.
I didn't relate to all of the poems in the collection, but some of my favourites included, "This is Ebonics 101," and "A Scolding for the Brother, Dylan".
This collection was a thoughtful and flavourful addition to my Poetry Month explorations.
March 17, 2024
A powerful collection of poems from a rising star. Steven Willis is a uniquely talented writer and performance poet, blending his South Side Chicago roots with a deeply anthropological analysis of Black culture. With an MFA in Acting from Iowa University and soon to be holding a second MFA in Poetry from the preeminent writing school in the country, the Iowa Writers Program, Steven's voice and art are riveting and urgent, joyful and soulful, deeply impactful and ripe for classroom analysis and discussion.
His spoken word pieces, such as Ebonics 101 and No Black Boys Die on Mother's Day, are available on Youtube. Trust me when I tell you that that pair of 2-minute long performances are worth their weight in gold, and then some.
Most highly recommended.
His spoken word pieces, such as Ebonics 101 and No Black Boys Die on Mother's Day, are available on Youtube. Trust me when I tell you that that pair of 2-minute long performances are worth their weight in gold, and then some.
Most highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews