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Stereo
A radical, urgent collection of poems about Blackness, the self, and the dismantling of corrupt powers in the fight for freedom.
A PEN America Literary Award Winner
Jonah Mixon-Webster works at the intersections of space and the body, race and region, sexuality and class. Stereo(TYPE), his debut collection of poetry, is a reckoning and a force, a revision of our most sacred mythologies, and a work of documentary reporting from Mixon-Webster’s hometown of Flint, Michigan, where clean tap water remains an uncertainty and the aftermath of racist policies persist.
Challenging stereotypes through scenes that scatter with satire, violence, and the extreme vagaries of everyday life, Mixon-Webster invents visual/sonic forms, conceptualizes poems as transcripts and frequently asked questions, and dives into dreamscapes and modern tragedies, deconstructing the very foundations America is built on. Interrogating language and the ways we wield it as both sword and shield, Stereo(TYPE) is a one-of-a-kind, rapturous collection of vital and beautiful poems.
A PEN America Literary Award Winner
Jonah Mixon-Webster works at the intersections of space and the body, race and region, sexuality and class. Stereo(TYPE), his debut collection of poetry, is a reckoning and a force, a revision of our most sacred mythologies, and a work of documentary reporting from Mixon-Webster’s hometown of Flint, Michigan, where clean tap water remains an uncertainty and the aftermath of racist policies persist.
Challenging stereotypes through scenes that scatter with satire, violence, and the extreme vagaries of everyday life, Mixon-Webster invents visual/sonic forms, conceptualizes poems as transcripts and frequently asked questions, and dives into dreamscapes and modern tragedies, deconstructing the very foundations America is built on. Interrogating language and the ways we wield it as both sword and shield, Stereo(TYPE) is a one-of-a-kind, rapturous collection of vital and beautiful poems.
97 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 13, 2021
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164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 13, 2021
STEREO(TYPE) by Jonah Mixon-Webster will shatter your expectations of poetry and rebuild them in a more tactile, visual, and aural way.
In these bold and mischievous pages, you will find a chronicling of the devastation in Flint, MI, a violently scribbled self portrait, a cacophony of Ss that form a chain link, a new mythology, a salvo of slang, and more. Mixon-Webster crashes into the page with a fiery but malleable voice, exploring a multitude of forms both traditional and new. This collection is a full-bodied performance piece captured at once.
While many poems in this collection are fast and blazing, I wanted to highlight the poem “Cypher in Which I Cannot Save the Gangster Disciple in Boystown”—a more tender offering to the reader as it echoes the inherent codes of a queer encounter. Ending on the line, “And what I/ do next is another defeat—write this, knowing it won’t keep you,” Mixon-Webster inserts a quiet, vital breath into the reading experience.
One of the best collections I’ve read in a while.
In these bold and mischievous pages, you will find a chronicling of the devastation in Flint, MI, a violently scribbled self portrait, a cacophony of Ss that form a chain link, a new mythology, a salvo of slang, and more. Mixon-Webster crashes into the page with a fiery but malleable voice, exploring a multitude of forms both traditional and new. This collection is a full-bodied performance piece captured at once.
While many poems in this collection are fast and blazing, I wanted to highlight the poem “Cypher in Which I Cannot Save the Gangster Disciple in Boystown”—a more tender offering to the reader as it echoes the inherent codes of a queer encounter. Ending on the line, “And what I/ do next is another defeat—write this, knowing it won’t keep you,” Mixon-Webster inserts a quiet, vital breath into the reading experience.
One of the best collections I’ve read in a while.
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July 1, 2021Not rating this one because it was just out of my wheelhouse and I don’t think I would fairly review it, so to speak. I will say, however, that Mixon-Webster writes with incredible power, emotion, and ingenuity. The form and style of his poems are very unique. I was most enthralled by the portions dedicated to the Flint Water Crisis.
August 20, 2021
Brilliant!
August 29, 2024
Video review https://youtu.be/RwqoxR303Ns
December 10, 2024
a fave. Hoplomania- the idea that guns are the best solution to disputes/problems
Paranoiac N° 5: Hoplomania
Everybody got a pistol / everybody got a ·45and the philosophy seems to be / least near as I can seewhen other folks give up theirs / I’ll give up mine— Gil Scott-Heron, “Gun “
The gun appears at a gathering of little niggas in the driveway. The gun appears with a pearl handle, in silk, in a lockbox inside my mother's headboard. The gun appears on the belt of a middle school liaison. The gun appears in leather atop my father's woven-wood placemat. The gun appears tucked on the waist of my big brother. The gun appears with those other niggas at the Mini Mart. The gun appears as a shotty pointed before my windshield. The gun appears in the bando on the bend of its cushion. The gun appears in chrome, stuck through the window of a Dodge, firing outside of Paradise. The gun appears as signage. The gun appears soaking the lot with a steady light. The gun appears behind the bulletproof glass at BP. The gun appears in hand at the table of a drunk. The gun appears as a misfire. The gun appears at my boy's crib—as a stick. The gun appears before the weather. The gun appears unbuckled on the officers who abound me. The gun appears in the basement, a father and his three sons fill thirty clips that hold fifteen rounds each. The gun appears in double. The gun appears on a strap while my other brother eats a sandwich. The gun appears on the counter behind where I sit. The gun appears in the mind of my Uber driver having heard me make a clink. The gun appears loaded. The gun appears as a Warhol—a print tacked on the head of a shut room. The gun appears off another hip. The gun appears in front of the tiny air in my face. The gun appears as a joke. The gun appears as my fist in a hot mouth in no time.
Paranoiac N° 5: Hoplomania
Everybody got a pistol / everybody got a ·45and the philosophy seems to be / least near as I can seewhen other folks give up theirs / I’ll give up mine— Gil Scott-Heron, “Gun “
The gun appears at a gathering of little niggas in the driveway. The gun appears with a pearl handle, in silk, in a lockbox inside my mother's headboard. The gun appears on the belt of a middle school liaison. The gun appears in leather atop my father's woven-wood placemat. The gun appears tucked on the waist of my big brother. The gun appears with those other niggas at the Mini Mart. The gun appears as a shotty pointed before my windshield. The gun appears in the bando on the bend of its cushion. The gun appears in chrome, stuck through the window of a Dodge, firing outside of Paradise. The gun appears as signage. The gun appears soaking the lot with a steady light. The gun appears behind the bulletproof glass at BP. The gun appears in hand at the table of a drunk. The gun appears as a misfire. The gun appears at my boy's crib—as a stick. The gun appears before the weather. The gun appears unbuckled on the officers who abound me. The gun appears in the basement, a father and his three sons fill thirty clips that hold fifteen rounds each. The gun appears in double. The gun appears on a strap while my other brother eats a sandwich. The gun appears on the counter behind where I sit. The gun appears in the mind of my Uber driver having heard me make a clink. The gun appears loaded. The gun appears as a Warhol—a print tacked on the head of a shut room. The gun appears off another hip. The gun appears in front of the tiny air in my face. The gun appears as a joke. The gun appears as my fist in a hot mouth in no time.
September 6, 2021
No superlative is fitting enough to describe this magnificent work(s). Read it, read it, read it!
April 2, 2024
Liked: POV treatment of Flint MI. Disliked: unable to connect.
June 3, 2022
Most of Mixon-Webster's book weaves this cloth or language that makes me think of the opening to Native Son, when Bigger is walking through New York, and he feels himself contained, culturally suppressed. Though with the poems in this book, the culture lives with the poet, within the poet. It's a way of being together. It's hard to really relate or express, because many poems feel specific to the black community.
What is most noticeable, though, are the ways other poems juxtapose to that language. It could be the poems engaged in a lyrically charged commentary on the poet's position. But most powerful for my reading were the Docupoetic poems about the Flint Water crisis. Where the official language, its unreliability, its supposed stature, its instruction, is brought into question. And its "clarity" is made all the more incriminating by the poems speaking from outside that mode of speaking.
What is most noticeable, though, are the ways other poems juxtapose to that language. It could be the poems engaged in a lyrically charged commentary on the poet's position. But most powerful for my reading were the Docupoetic poems about the Flint Water crisis. Where the official language, its unreliability, its supposed stature, its instruction, is brought into question. And its "clarity" is made all the more incriminating by the poems speaking from outside that mode of speaking.
August 15, 2021
I’m always looking to challenge my assumptions and diversify my reading choices. This book of poems did both and I’m happy to have read it. It was emotive, thought-provoking, breath-taking and alive. My favorite section was about the Flint water crisis, because we need to keep telling this story over and over again until something substantive is done for the victims.
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January 21, 2019Reviewed for CLMP Firecracker Awards - so no public rating or comments!
July 9, 2021
Honestly the shittiest book of "poetry" I've ever read. I wish I could rate less than 1 star.
October 21, 2021
Wow and woah.
January 10, 2022
I'm not sure if I thought the mix worked!
March 9, 2022
I didn’t enjoy all of his poems but the ones that worked for me were strong enough to carry the book. I loved his series on the Flint water crisis and the poems with a more personal narrative.
May 2, 2022
Unbelievably POWERFUL. This book is SO INTENSE. My heart aches and I cried so much. The full emotions can be FELT. Amazing.
September 6, 2022
Really enjoyed the concrete stuff and that Sisyphus retelling was perfect.
January 5, 2023
Not for the faint of heart but so magnificent. The more I return to this collection, the more I see the author doing.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews