“Raina León is a fiery and courageous poet. The poems in this, her first collection, are explosions of pain and transcendence, jagged epiphanies, surreal, haunting, erotic and anguished by turns. Whether challenging Catholic orthodoxy or celebrating her Afro-Puerto Rican legacy, remembering the struggles of an addict or the touch of a lover, León’s poetry sings hymns to life in the midst of death. Listen.”

--Martín Espada, professor at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of The Republic of Poetry and Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982 - 2002

PODCAST (New York University and Cave Canem co-sponsored event)