Annotation:
Using Shovel Poetry, Nikki Grimes builds on the works of the black women poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
Book Talk:
Shovel Poetry is a style of poetry in which an author takes an existing line of poetry from another author and then uses that line to build an entirely new poem.
In this work, Nikki Grimes takes a line of poetry, and highlights the words of the old poem in her new work. In most of her poetry, these words are at the end of each new line, and they are highlighted, going down the right-hand side of the page.
What I love the most is the way that this book is laid out, with each poem commanding 3 pages. The original piece of poetry is included, with author attribution. Grimes’ new poem is just after the page turn with the original words of poetry highlighted. And then, a beautiful piece of visual art from the same time is on the facing page.
There is information about every artist and poet whose work is shown in the book in the back matter. This inclusion helps to elevate their works and draw interest to their overall works.
I loved this book. That is not a phrase I often utter about poetry...
Nikki Grimes Website: https://www.nikkigrimes.com/
Image: Worldcat.org
