From Chains to Change: An American Testament
As America approaches its 250th anniversary of independence in 2026, poet Pelumi Olatinpo offers a revolutionary witness to our complete national story reaching back centuries. MANIFEST DESTINY introduces the soneta — a powerful new poetic form of six lines and sixty words — to compress the American experience from its origins through today into moments of startling clarity.
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This collection traces how the nation's founding promises have echoed and evolved through the centuries. From the tenderness of love poems to the fury of prophetic witness, from Nigerian Pidgin to biblical Hebrew, the work traces the continuous line from slavery to mass incarceration, from westward expansion to contemporary conflicts, from the Trail of Tears to the streets of Gaza. Yet within this reckoning lies unexpected beauty: "I've loved you with the darkest and brightest blues / Of every ocean."
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