Solid State Books welcomes back Kevin Powell, author of several earlier works including My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Join us to celebrate the publishing of Grocery Shopping with My Mother by Soft Skull Press.

We will hear from the poet as he reads from Grocery Shopping with My Mother, and discuss the work with a short Q&A session. The author will also sign books for a brief interval following the presentation. This is an IN PERSON, IN STORE event, please RSVP here.

When Kevin Powell’s elderly mother became ill, he returned home every week to take her grocery shopping in Jersey City. Walking behind her during those trips, Powell began to hear her voice, stories, and language in a new way—examining his own healing while praying for hers.

Grocery Shopping with My Mother originated as social media posts about these visits and evolved into a breathtaking collection of thirty-two new poems, crafted like an album, plus four bonus tracks celebrating a great love of wordplay. Culturally rooted in the literary traditions of Ntozake Shange and Allen Ginsberg, Powell’s poems honor the likes of V (formerly Eve Ensler), bell hooks, and Sidney Poitier.

Grocery Shopping with My Mother dives into the complexities of relationships and contemporary themes with honesty and vulnerability. Creatively and spiritually inspired by Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Powell’s poems shift in form and style, from praise chants to reverential meditations to, most importantly, innovative hope.