Pullman examines themes of labor and love, using as its backdrop the history of the treatment of the Pullman car porters of the late 19th century. The poems and art pieces in this collection both reflect on and interact with cultural and historical sources, from the slave narratives of Harriet Jacobs to the creative output of the poet and artist' s late father, a musician and songwriter for Aretha Franklin. With urgency, and without apology, Pullman underscores the relationships between the events of our American past and of our present.