Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides by Williams, Saul
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides by Williams, Saul

Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides

Award-winning poet and performer Saul Williams explores how artists today must respond to systemic violence and injustice--in...
$21.54 USD
$21.54 USD
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Author: Saul Williams
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $21.54
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides by Williams, Saul

Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides

$21.54
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides by Williams, Saul

Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why the Artist Must Take Sides

$21.54
Author: Saul Williams
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

Award-winning poet and performer Saul Williams explores how artists today must respond to systemic violence and injustice--in the words of Paul Robeson, by choosing sides.

Songs My Mother Taught Me is Williams' clear-eyed exploration of the role of the artist in these times by answering the question: what radicalized you? He answers by examining how his role models--writers and artists, from Amiri Baraka to local musicians in Brazilian bars to Palestinian hip-hop heads--have responded to imperialist violence, oppression, and genocide. Riffing on Paul Robeson's famous declaration, Williams builds a provocative case for why today's artists cannot remain neutral in the face of injustice. "We need songs that crumble empires," he writes, "films that teach, remind, and inspire, poems that would make a despot revoke your citizenship."

The radical artists of the Vanguard Series offer new poetry and prose to answer the question, What does poetry have to do with politics?



Author: Saul Williams
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 09/08/2026
Pages: 204
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9798888905845


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/20/2026
Booklist 08/01/2026
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2026

About the Author

Saul Williams is a Grammy-nominated filmmaker, musician, poet, writer, and actor. Author of said the shotgun to the head and the dead emcee scrolls, Williams is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip-hop, and for his lead roles in the independent film Slam and the jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me. Saul starred as preacher Jedidiah Moore in Ryan Coogler's Sinners. He lives in Los Angeles, California.


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