Adrian Matejka: Adrian Matejka

A finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson   The legendary Jack Johnson (1878–1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers—and white America—to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka’s third work of poetry, follows the fighter’s journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka’s book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson’s complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

Selected for the 2008 National Poetry Series by Kevin Young The poems in Adrian Matejka's second collection, Mixology, shapeshift through the myriad meanings of "mixing" to explore and explode ideas of race, skin politics, appropriation, and cultural identity. Whether the focus of the individual poems is musical, digital, or historical, the otherness implicit in being of more than one racial background guides Matejka's work to the inevitable conclusion that all things-no matter how disparate-are parts of the whole.

Using musical allusion and metaphor, juxtaposing history and autobiography, Matejka navigates a triracial identity. In these poems, having too many heritages means having no heritage at all. As a result, cultural identifiers-be they afros, war paint, or William Shatner-take the place of identity. Vibrant narrative lyrics use image as riff, syllable as note, to improvise on a personal history severed from tradition. Betwixt and Between Miscegenation's capitolis the mule. Not quite horse,almost donkey. No usefulerection to speak of.In any unnatural concoction,somebody's got to takethe blame. Freud would saycredit the mother if propsare necessary.Mulattosare human mules-halfblack, most times morethan half white-misogynouson a good day. All the while,impotent between tribes.Blame: gift of the exotic,like Hendrix openingfor the Monkees, or Othellokey holed by Iago. Blessedbe he with the hybrid vigorof melanin, arrested betweenthe sun and the sun."ReadingAdrian Matejka's amazing debut, I was left with the feeling that American Poetry was at last beginning to catch up with early twenty-first century American life. He has written the first serious songs from a world that's about to make itself felt and known."-Cornelius Eady