Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Screaming Freedom by Allen Michael Hines -- AVAILABLE SEPT. 14

 
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Screaming Freedom, a collection of poems by Allen Michael Hines, marks a quiet milestone in the world of Northeast Ohio poetry. The 32 poems that comprise the collection are spare, thought-provoking, and imbued with a driving desire to understand and be understood. Hines, an Alliance native and Kent State University student who lives with cerebral palsy, seeks “to give a passionate voice to the realities of disability” – and he does so adeptly over the course of this volume. Screaming Freedom contains poems of melancholy, hope, reflection, and the search for unconditional love and acceptance. They are probing, at times political – and always personal and poignant.

While Hines’ poems touch on Northeast Ohio communities, landmarks, and history as they explore the intricacies a life apart from the mainstream, their message is universal. The poems are underscored by a quest for equality, by a desire to examine the realities of the under-represented. They give light to the unique challenges, perspectives, struggles and strengths of those who live with “disabilities.” But Hines’ poems ultimately transcend the topic of disability – and hone in on the humanity in us all.

"In making known the restrictions imposed upon the poet by cerebral palsy, Allen Hines holds a magnifying glass to the yearnings felt by all of us, simultaneously limited and enabled as we are by our embodiment here in time: to speak clearly, to embrace another, to bridge the gap of our separateness. ... I am sure this young poet has many more poems to write ... and an audience waiting to read them, for Hines’ debut collection exhibits a remarkable sense of control and clarity; his wish 'to over-articulate life' has been realized."
          --Alice Cone, author of As If a Leaf Could Be Preserved

***A POETRY READING/BOOK-RELEASE PARTY IS PLANNED FOR 9:30 P.M. TUSDAY, OCT. 6 AT PROFESSORS PUB (110 E. MAIN ST., KENT). ALLEN WILL READ FROM AND SIGN COPIES OF SCREAMING FREEDOM.***


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