Other Revival: Poems & Reckonings

“The Other Revival is about restoring what history has overlooked. In a time when public memory is under threat, this book reminds us that the most vital archives live in people—in their voices, in their willingness to pass stories on,” —Salaam Green.

I want to know what you know about my people
I said to the caretaker’s granddaughter.
I want you to tell me something about them.

The Other Revival is a story of homecoming. This collection of poems revolves around a house built in Harpersville, Alabama in 1841. Thirty-nine people enslaved by Samuel Wallace, the owner of the property, constructed the house and worked the land.

For generations, the house remained in the Wallace family and is now a reconciliation center where Black, white, and mixed-race descendants come together. Salaam Green has led many of these gatherings and worked with descendants to create these, and many other, poems. The Other Revival is her poetic journey to one rural place that is a crossroads of racial, economic, and enslavement heritage. It is an elegy and a blessing.

Read Why The Other Revival is an important and urgent book.