Description

Winner of the AnisfieldWolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the National Book Award in Poetrya collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson

The legendary Jack Johnson 18781946 was a true American creation The child of emancipated slaves he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow challenging white boxersand white Americato become the first AfricanAmerican heavyweight world champion The Big Smoke Adrian Matejkas third work of poetry follows the fighters journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multilayered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved Matejkas book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnsons complicated legacy one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth