Ibi Zoboi met Yusef Salaam in an African literature course at Hunter College taught by Dr. Marimba Ani in 1999. Yusef Salaam was
one of the five Black teenaged boys who were wrongfully convicted of murder in Central Park a decade earlier—a story documented in Ken Burns’ The Central Park Five.
Yusef had “freed his mind” while serving a sentence for a crime he hadn’t committed, by writing poetry in prison. Since their first meeting, Haitian-American Ibi Zoboi had become the acclaimed author of American Street, Pride, and others. A few years ago, she asked Yusef to collaborate on a book. That book became the co-authored Punching the Air (Balzer & Bray 2020) the much-decorated best-selling novel-in-verse, about Amal, using some of the poetry Yusef had written while in prison along with the words of master poet, Zoboi.
The fictional character Amal, speaking of his court prosecutors, says, “Their words and what they thought/ to be their truth/ were like a scalpel/ shaping me into/ the monster/ they want me to be.”
Waiting for the court’s decision, Amal says, “The jury finds, she says/ As if this is a game of hide-and-seek/ and I’m curled up under some table/ my body balled up like a fist…”
Once convicted, he says, “There is nothing left to do now but think about God: my country’s Money/ my mother’s Allah/ My grandmother’s Jesus/ my father’s American Dream/ my uncle’s Foreign Cars/ my teacher’s College Education/ my lawyer’s Time.”
Once in prison, everything inside him is dying—his dreams, his life. His frustration is over-whelming. “Some of us put up more walls/ some of us look as if/ we will break down all the walls/ Most of us become the walls.” He is sinking into hell.
Then he finds poetry and drawing, which will be his salvation. “I paint words and voices, rhymes and rhythm/ and every whisper, every conversation beats a drum/ in my mind/ at full blast.” But the making of art doesn’t make everything okay. Maybe this reader’s outrage peaks when one of the white guards continually but secretly displays his tattoo to the Black inmates—a black baby with a rope around his neck.
Only gradually does the reader discovers of what Amal was accused. We live with Amal through his imprisonment where an invisible line divides the rich from the poor prisoners, the white from the Black—it’s subtle and treacherous.
Sometimes this beautifully written book is just too hard and I had to close the book. I realize that is due to my white privilege—a Black person cannot close the book on the potential and real ongoing threat to their life and freedom.
The theme of the book is contained in the lines, “my punches will land on a wall/ my punches will be paintbrushes.” If you care about the plight of America, I suggest you read this book then hand it to another reader.
Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Lift As You Climb; Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue all signed and for sale at Jane Addams bookstore. She teaches community classes at Parkland. talesforallages.com
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