Poetry. African American Studies. "AN UNMISTAKABLE RED & THE OBAMA CHRONICLES...is the bomb. I found so many moments, so many moods, so many insights. Yours is the voice of compassion, of elegant rage. It is country but urban-wise."—Lamont B. Steptoe

"Yes, this writer is a woman, who knows that 'every mouth's its own love language, / lust's first cousin.' And yes, she is a black woman, for whom the eyes of Barack Obama 'are so deep brown / I see blue in them, / ocean water, / bones rising, / right fists raised.' And yes, like the rest of us, she's getting older, 'hair graying in places / I shouldn't have hair.' But beyond all divisions, she is a poet, who knows that poetry is music, and music is 'the first place Black and White / came together like unwritten notes / in a jazz composition.' In these poems Mary Weems both challenges and embraces America in all its turbulence and beauty. We should be grateful."—George Bilgere

Mary E. Weems, Ph.D. is a poet, playwright, author, performer, and imagination-intellect theorist. She is currently the Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights (April 2007 - April 2009). Dr. Weems is the author and/or co-editor of several books including Cleveland Poetry Scenes: A Panorama & Anthology (Bottom Dog Press, 2008), Poetry Power (Silvermoon Press, 2003), her educational text Public Education and the Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in My Mouth (PeterLang, 2003), Working Hard for the Money: America's Working Poor in Stories, Poems, and Photos (Bottom Dog Press, 2002), and a book of poems An Unmistakable Shade of Red and the Obama Chronicles (Bottom Dog Press, 2008).