Electric Arches

By: Eve L. Ewing

Narrated by: Eve L. Ewing

Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose.

Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing's narrative takes us from the streets of 1990s Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances - blues legend Koko Taylor is a tall-tale hero; LeBron James travels through time and encounters his teenage self. She identifies everyday objects - hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook - as precious icons.

Her visual art is spare, playful, and poignant - a cereal box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher's angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up.

Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, artist, and educator from Chicago. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, New Republic, The Nation, The Atlantic, and many other publications. She is a sociologist at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

©2017 Eve L. Ewing (P)2017 Eve L. Ewing

100% recommend

All of the poems are moving and Eve is an amazing narrator. Will listen again.

I was electrocuted

Eve Ewing’s mastery of storytelling is chef’s kiss! I will keep coming back to this book forever!

Brilliant

One of the best things I've read all year. An astonishing set of poems blurring afrofuturism with biography, with guest appearances by Erykah Badu and Metta World Peace and Prince and Assata Shakur. Ewing's reading is fantastic - an incredible audio production, complementing a brilliant book.

Nice!

Very good! I enjoyed this even though I’m not a fan of poetry. The author is very gifted.

Poetry by Eve

Loved the reminiscing stories about Fullerton Avenue and Division Street. She takes us to her younger days in life with such artistry. Loved the Koko Taylor poem as well.