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Black Anthology: The Truth: Poems from a Black Mans Perspective

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Lynnor Latham Graham has presented a work that is at once a critical commentary on the failure of America to save a generation of young black males and a poignant cry of hope --of affirmation in the face of adversity. His medium is poetry, touching every piece of the underclass experience: the central cultural place of the black woman, the disaster that drugs brought to poor neighborhoods in the 1980s, committed juveniles graduating to penitiaries and graveyards, the promise of Christianity.

Graham's personal (and considerable) experience with inner city life shines most brightly in his work. The small assaults of stereotyping as well as his daily struggle to open new doors to the "young brothers" he works with as a counselor in a juvenile detention center in Boston, Massachusetts are especially touching pieces.

This work is as relevant for majorities as much as it is for minorities. It provides a unique and unrelenting glimpse into a place where hopelessness and the threat of violence prevail.

Too many of us turn our heads and look the other way. Graham has breached the silence and beckons us with a grim reality check lined with the promise of a new day.