
We welcome back Nate Marshall today to discuss Cortney Lamar Charleston’s poetry collection Doppelgangbanger, which grapples with the tensions that impact a Black boy’s struggle through self-destructive definitions of manhood. We discuss the narratives around coming of age in the suburbs and the city, and ask ourselves, is there really such a thing as an objectively good poem?
Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our May book club pick will be!
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.
- Doppelgangbanger by Cortney Lamar Charleston
- Finna by Nate Marshall
- Wild Hundreds by Nate Marshall
- The College Dropout (Kanye West, 2004)
- Mat Johnson

- The Sellout by Paul Beatty
- Black No More by George S. Schuyler
- Drake
- The Golden State Warriors
- Lil Wayne
- Ready to Die (Notorious B.I.G., 1994)
- Me Against the World (Tupac Shakur, 1995)
- Illmatic (Nas, 1994)
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Lauryn Hill, 1998)
- 4:44 (Jay-Z, 2017)
- Tim Duncan
- Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses
- New Criticism (Poetry Foundation)
- South to America by Imani Perry
- Russell Wilson
- “Russell Wilson Responds To THE PIVOT’s Channing Crowder Saying He’s A Square Who Ciara Just Married For Money” (Samuel Clement, Black Sports Online)
- Ciara
- Black Picket Fences by Mary Pattillo
- Black Bourgeoisie by Franklin Frazier
- Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham
- The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Ryan Coogler
- “Ep. 158 Reaching for Answers with Reginald Dwayne Betts” (The Stacks)
- Addy the American Girl Doll
- “Ode to Cheese Fries” by José Olivarez
- “It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off” by Hanif Abdurraqib
- “Ep. 160 Black People Doing Spectacular Things with Hanif Abdurraqib” (The Stacks)
- good kid, m.A.A.d city (Kendrick Lamar, 2012)
- The Slim Shady LP (Eminem, 1999)
- Marshall Mathers L.P. (Eminem, 2000)
- VooDoo (D’Angelo, 2000)
- Danez Smith
- “Notes for a Film on Black Joy” (Danez Smith, Gawker)
- William Shakespeare
- Love’s in Need of Love Today (Stevie Wonder, 1976)
- Rahm Emanuel
- Richard III by William Shakespeare
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Telepathologies by Cortney Lamar Charleston
- The Crown Ain’t Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib
- A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
- The Breakbeat Poets anthology (eds. Nate Marshall, Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana)
- The Chicago White Sox
- The San Francisco Giants
- Shine Bright by Danyel Smith
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