About the Author: Kelli Stevens Kane is a poet, playwright, oral historian, and accountant. She’s a Cave Canem Fellow, an August Wilson Center Fellow, and a recipient of Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grants from The Pittsburgh Foundation. She’s studied at VONA, Hurston/Wright, and Callaloo. Kane’s poems have appeared in North American Review, Little Patuxent Review, Under a Warm Green Linden, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Split This Rock. She’s read her poetry and oral history and performed her one woman show, Big George, nationally. Hallelujah Science (published by Spuyten Duyvil press) is her first book.
For more information visit www.kellistevenskane.com.
“Hallelujah Science comes at you like a muted fever and suddenly you find yourself wanting to stomp and shout. Kane’s level of insight, revelation, and economy becomes a spiritual exodus to the lands of being Black, white, a poet, a woman, a shadow, and a human being. To be sure, when we use the phrase ‘dropping science,’ Kane drops it on a regular basis in this book. Welcome to the science of living as a celebration to be questioned, laughed at, examined, and cut with verse so exact that you have to be willing to bleed to live.” – Willie Perdomo, The Crazy Bunch, winner of the New York City Poetry Award
“In this collection of sharp and tenderly rendered vignettes, Kelli Stevens Kane crafts a burgeoning, addictive narrative that draws from her prowess as a storyteller and a lover of history, sang long and aloud.” – Patricia Smith, Incendiary Art, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
“In medicinal song language Kelli Stevens Kane’s Hallelujah Science explores issues of identity, transformation, and the sacred nature of life itself. Kane’s lines are beatific as scripture verses, illuminating the threshold between life, spirit, and the afterlife. These poems acknowledge the relationality between all that exists. Hallelujah Science is a revelatory creation story and a gift to readers everywhere.” – Lisa Panepinto, where i come from the fish have souls
Don’t miss out: White Whale Books will be helping Kelli Stevens Kane launch Hallelujah Science (online) with Rose M. Smith, Adriana E. Ramírez, and Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie on Dec. 11, 2020.
(61)
I like my showers scalding hot
and I like to touch the lids of boiling pots of water.
lately though
I’ve been getting burned
I’ve lost a lot of my fingerprints
so I went out and bought some oven mitts
and I’m trying to adjust to my new self.
the unspeakable
opposite
of invincible.
(37)
Turning bad apples
into baked apples,
I am happy
about brown sugar and heat
and look forward
to throwing some ice cream on top.
I love anything
brave enough to melt.
This excerpt from Hallelujah Science by Kelli Stevens Kane is published here courtesy of the author and should not be reproduced without permission. “(61)” was originally published in The Mom Egg, volume 8 and also appeared in Hip Mama. “(37)” was originally published in Mythium Literary Journal.
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