Blackfish

In Blackfish, Elvis Alves locates beauty in the horrid and strange that constitute familial and social history. In this way, the poems grasp after the meaning of life in an attempt to ensure survival in the midst of all that it offers. Some of the poems are personal while others have a wider social reach. The collection identifies a connecting line between these two aspects and argues that the personal and social affect each other in ways that are not always apparent. Each poem carries weight that points to, and shines light on, what it means to be human.

Elvis Alves’ book Blackfish is a moving and powerful collection of poems both immediately accessible, and rich with complex allusions that move smoothly from the Bible through to Jazz and Reggae, current affairs, and genetic inheritance. The book presents poetry about diaspora and displacement, about class struggle, servitude and oppression, music, survival, love, hate, and every shade in-between. They are moving, personal, and universal, and every poem has the undeniable ring of painful but essential truth. - Magdalena Ball, author of Unmaking Atoms