They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

Chicago poet and scholar Eve L. Ewing’s introduction highlights the relatability and authenticity of Hanif Abdurraqib’s writing: “He has an uncanny ability to write about music and the world around it as though he was sitting there on the couch with you in your grandma’s basement, listening to her old vinyl” (ii). Additionally, Ewing introduces one of the main focuses of the collection, “life and death—in particular, though not exclusively, […] Black life, and Black death” (iv). Ewing concludes by saying the collection gives her hope and optimism.

The “title” of this section begins a six-part essay focusing on the last few years of Marvin Gaye’s life and the experience of being Black in America. Below the bolded text, Abdurraqib describes the experience of converging in downtown Columbus, Ohio, for a Fourth of July fireworks display. “Born in the U.S.A.,” a Bruce Springsteen song, plays while attendees at Huntington Park cozy up to their loved ones. Abdurraqib himself attends the celebrations sometimes, in part to watch the fireworks illuminate the faces of the Black children who are “still too young to know of America’s hunt for their flesh” (5).