This collection of poems reflects upon the years between 2016 and 2021. This time was marked by the election of Donald Trump to the office of President. He won office by vowing to "build a wall," "drain the swamp," and generally, "Make America Great Again." President Trump's reliably callous treatment of race- and human-relations ensured that news and social media would be consistently awful.
During these years, all forms of media were flooded with incidents of police wielding undue force, brutalizing, degrading and killing black and brown people. Millions of guns continued to be sold each year with sales rocketing every time there was a school shooting or another cause for national alarm. Children labelled "illegal immigrants'' were interned at the Mexican border.
While the number of racist white massecurists raged across the nation - in churches, schools, theaters, and elsewhere - Muslims were banned from entering the United States because they were perceived to be terrorists. We hated the people and health of our world. We pulled out of the Paris climate accords. We pulled out of the World Health Organization during the start of a global pandemic. We insulted international and democratic allies. We lauded authoritarians and dictators.
Our dissents became riotous. We burned cities. We stormed the capital. We were vocal and visual about our distrust of Democrats and Republicans alike. Some were Proud Boys and Girls. Some were Anti-Fascists. Separate but together, we tacitly agreed to hate "the Establishment'' enough to wage a violent culture war. Separate but together, we devoutly hated the government, the other party, and the politicians who make it all possible.
This time was marked by dedicated resistance. On one side, an alternative right-wing of patriots demanded that Western white ways remain dominant. On the other side, a collective camped under the banner of "Black Lives Matter" resolved to remedy racism and repair the poverty that has been caused by 400 years of discriminatory practices. Protestors around the world insisted they would not be choked by the hands of ignorance or bound by the chains of hate. On each side, young people insisted that change be made now.
Nyah Vanterpool's poetry collection Resolve aims to challenge contemporary perspectives around race, American identity, and disunity. Vanterpool offers a portrait of a mixed black man reconciling the promise of the American dream with the reality of America's toxicity and legacy of violent oppression. Vanterpool's poetry joins together a denouncement of hate, racism, and American exceptionalism with a unifying call to peace, hope, forgiveness, and repair. Poems pull at the tension of hope and fear, and the duality of feeling both American and other. Resolve represents a restless wish for racism to end.
