Not Black enough because I am not man enough. Not man enough because I like men.
This is one of many quotable passages from Brian Broome’s remarkable memoir PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS, a book that’s been described as “at once playful, poignant, and wholly original. Broome’s writing brims with swagger and sensitivity, bringing an exquisite and fresh voice to ongoing cultural conversations about Blackness in America.”
My quick take: this is what we read –and need– literature for: to understand the ways we’re alike, and appreciate all the ways we aren’t. I approached this memoir with respect and humility, being a straight white man, but I’d also resist any assumption that people like myself aren’t necessarily the target audience; indeed, in some ways a work of art like this needs to be widely read, so that people less familiar with the urgencies and intimacies addressed in this writing can gain insight and empathy.
Suffice it to say, PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS is timely and important, but seems to hit even harder a year and change into the COVID crisis and coming up on the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. Plus, America being America, we need brave and moving accounts like this to illustrate how far we have (and haven’t) come, and remind us how far we need to go. The wisdom informing this book was clearly difficult to come by; it’s to Brian’s credit that his memoir is helping create the world (and words) that young men today desperately need. Or, living the words that make up this book helped save the author’s life; as a result, this gift will be a point of reference and a lifeline for countless souls in the decades ahead. This is not necessarily an “easy” book to read, and that’s the point: there are moments of shame explored, but it never feels like catharsis so much as transcendence.
1455 encourages you to pick up your copy and support independent booksellers via our great partners at D.C.’s historic The Potter’s House.
BRIAN BROOME, a poet and screenwriter, is K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University’s Martin Luther King Writing Awards. He also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019. He lives in Pittsburgh. Find him online at https://www.brianbroome.com/
