Radiation Machine Gun Funk

Poetry. Memoir. Hybrid forms. Fresh from the spoken-word tradition, Roger Smith investigates justice in the Black Lives Matter era, often seen through the lens of the cancer survivor. How to cure the cancers of our country? Smith takes up this challenge on every level: personal, familial, societal, spiritual. Says Kimiko Hahn, "Intense doesn't begin to describe the impassioned, heated, and committed voice. Unique? Smith's work is sui generis. The poetry is for the times and beyond." She elaborates: "Here, in a whip of magic, Roger Smith blends his prose and lyric poems to heady purpose. Weaving together his battle with cancer and the recent murders of Black men that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement, both strands are rife with issues of social justice-that is, outrage and love of community. In Smith's case, community starts at home in the borough of Queens, New York, and includes the medical profession, family from Barbados, and friends on and off the block."