Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

 

“The story that I thought


was my life


didn’t start on the day


I was born


Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.


The story that I think


will be my life


starts today


Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?” - taken from Goodreads.com


A powerful story in verse about Amal, an African American teenager, who finds himself wrongfully imprisoned for assaulting a white teenager.  


Visit Ibi Zoboi’s website.

Visit Yusef Salaam & the Innocence Project.

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