Occupation Poet, music critic | Nationality American | |
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Subject Music, culture, identity Notable works The Crown Ain't Worth Much Books The Crown Ain't Worth Much, THEY CANT KILL US UNTIL THEY K Profiles | ||
Hanif willis abdurraqib the crown ain t worth much
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib (born 1983) is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is currently a columnist at MTV News, writing about music, culture, and identity.
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Willis-Abdurraqib was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is also the setting for his first book, a poetry collection called The Crown Ain't Worth Much (Button Poetry, July 2016). Publishers Weekly's review said, "When Willis-Abdurraqib meditates on the dangers of being young and black in America, the power of his poetry is undeniable," and the Indiana Review calls the collection "expansive and rich...compassionate, elegiac." Fusion called his "poetry a crash course in emotional honesty." Writing of the collection's titular poem, The Huffington Post said Willis-Abdurraqib's "chilling take on black death is heartbreakingly true."
Willis-Abdurraqib's writing has also appeared in The Fader, The New York Times, and Pitchfork. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow. PBS's Articulate with Jim Cotter describes Willis-Abdurraqib as "of a generation that is helping to redefine poetry" and Blavity called him one of "13 Young Black Poets You Should Know." The Huffington Post named his essay on Fetty Wap's song "Trap Queen" to its list of "The Most Important Writing From People of Color in 2015." Discussing Willis-Abdurraqib's essay on the late Muhammed Ali as inspiration to a generation of hip-hop artists, critic Ned Raggett called the piece a "standout" among the many elegies.
Willis-Abdurraqib is a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine and a founder, with Eve Ewing, of the Echo Hotel poetry collective. He edited an anthology of poems about pop music called Again I Wait For This To Pull Apart (FreezeRay Press 2015) and is currently writing a poetry collection about the night Notorious B.I.G. died. He has an essay collection, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, forthcoming in November 2017 from Two Dollar Radio.
He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Hanif willis abdurraqib ghosting
