"These
harrowing poems make montage, make mirrors, make elegiac biopic, make
'a dope ass trailer with a hundred black children / smiling into the
camera & the last shot is the wide mouth of a pistol.' That's no
spoiler alert, but rather, Smith's way–saying & laying it
beautifully bare. A way of desensitizing the reader from his own
defenses each time this long, black movie repeats."–Marcus
Wicker
"Danez Smith's
Black Movie is a cinematic tour-de-force that lets poetry vie with
film for the honor of which medium can most effectively articulate
the experience of Black America."–Rain Taxi