Pretend the Ball Is Named Jim Crow (eBook)

The Story of Josh Gibson

Dorian Hairston (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
118 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-9889-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Joshua "e;Josh"e; Gibson (19111947) is a baseball legendone of the greatest power hitters in the Negro Leagues, and in all of baseball history. At the height of his career, this trailblazing athlete suffered grueling physical ailments, lost his young wife who died giving birth to their twins, and endured years of Jim Crowera segregation and discriminationall the while breaking records on the ball field. Dorian Hairston's debut poetry collection explores the Black American experience through the lens of Gibson's life and seventeen-year baseball career, which culminated in his posthumous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Hairston brilliantly reconstructs the personas of Gibson and others in his orbit whose encounters with white supremacy interweave with the inevitability of losing loved ones. By alternating between the perspectives of Gibson, members of his family, and contemporary Black baseball players, Hairston captures the complexity and the pain of living under the oppressive weight of grief and racial discrimination.Emotive, prescient, and absorbing, these powerful poems address social change, culture, family, race, death, and oppressionwhile honoring and giving voice to Gibson and a voiceless generation of African Americans.

Autor

Dorian Hairston is a poet, scholar, and former University of Kentucky baseball player from Lexington, Kentucky. He is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and his work has appeared in Shale, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and pluck!

Inhalt

1. Bottom of the First: 0-0
Manifesto for Black Baseball Players
Smuggling Strength
Naming
Homerun #1
Night Visions
Brooklyn
Uncovered
Dear Diary
Papa Tells the Truth
Premature
2. Bottom of the Fourth: 1-0 Grays
The Original Dodgers
Seen It Coming (1951)
Pregame Cut
West Field
Can't Compete
Trash Talk
Bat Considers Considering a Strike
Homerun #270
Dear Mama
Your Enough Ain't Enough
Not Fit for Service
Pregame Prayer
3. Top of the Fifth: 2-2
Telegram to Pittsburg Pirates
Gator Belt
Outfield Cot
Worship
Trucutu
Perejil
The Base Watch
Winter Ball
4. Bottom of the Sixth: 3-2 Crawfords
Resurrection
The Magician
Battle of the Greatest
Late Night Ritual
The Bats Speak
Deep Breath
5. Bottom of the Ninth: 3-2 Crawfords
Living Will
Youth Fountain
My First Slump
Mamma and Her Daughter
Let Us Be
Home Run #800 and Something
6. Extra Innings
Cooperstown
Where We Go
The Walk Off
Acknowledgements

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.2.2024
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 140 x 140 mm
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Lyrik / Gedichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
• Themenwelt: Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Affrilachia • athlete rituals • black american experience • black babe ruth • black baseball player • Death • discrimination in sports • Grief • Jim Crow • Josh Gibson • Negro baseball leagues • Oppression • persona poetry • race in sports
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-9889-5 / 0813198895
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9889-7 / 9780813198897