Unshuttered: Poems
by Patricia Smith

Award-winning poet Patricia Smith presents Unshuttered, a vivid portrayal of Black America in the nineteenth century, framed through a unique collection of rare photographs. Over two decades, Smith has gathered these historical images of Black individuals and families, whose gazes reach us across time.

Unshuttered serves as a conduit for the voices of this pivotal era. Smith’s powerful verses and insightful language breathe life into the photo subjects, infusing them with renewed urgency and vitality. She explores the connection between her own life’s triumphs and losses and the lived experiences of these figures from the past:

We ache for fiction etched in black and white. Our eyes never touch. These tragic grays and bustles, mourners’ hats plopped high upon our tamed but tangled crowns, strain to disguise what yearning does with us.

Smith’s mastery of dramatic monologue and poetic form resurrects the emotions and narratives embedded in these historic images. Unshuttered is a testament to her skill in weaving history into fierce and formidable lyricism, marking her as one of American literature’s most adept wordsmiths.