LOVE IS A DANGEROUS WORD
The Selected Poems of Essex Hemphill
Edited by John Keene
New Directions. 192 pages, $18.95
CONVEYING queer identity, sexuality, and social disadvantage as an African-American man in the late 1980s, Essex Hemphill was a poet whose voice is as strong and necessary today as it was back then. His poetry covers large and significant literary terrains, embracing queer, African-American, and AIDS-related themes. His most gripping collection, Ceremonies, first published in 1992, has long been out of print. A new collection of his poems titled Love Is a Dangerous Word gives readers a new opportunity to engage with his enthusiastic voice, the product of a time that should not be overlooked or forgotten.
Gabriel X. Hendrix is a writer whose essays have appeared in The Body and The Los Angeles Review of Books.
