I Am Not a Slave, So I Write: A Collection of Thought-Provoking Poems

Willie James Harvey
PublishAmerica (2006)
ISBN 9781424135417
Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views (4/07)

 

Willie J. Harvey was born in Florida and moved to Georgia as a kid. He grew up in a little country town called Perry, Georgia. As the middle child of a family of five children, Mr. Harvey saw his share of struggles. He now lives in Belle Glade, Florida and is a dedicated employee of Wal-Mart.

Willie J. has put a lot of his political thought into this sixty-three page book of his poetry and prose. What I found as I flipped through the pages was a feeling of mixed emotions. Mr. Harvey was angry and irrational on some pages and very real and thoughtful on others. The “Struggling Blackman” is a good example of old world beliefs. Willie thinks the Whiteman still has advantages the Blackman does not.

The poetry gets more interesting in spots but is peppered with racism throughout the whole of the sixty-three pages. “I Am Not a Slave, So I Write” is more than just a collection of stories and poetry about a Blackman. It is one Blackman’s sociopolitical view of his life. Whether correct or incorrect I shall not make comment on as I am not a Poli-Sci major and it is just my opinion.

From the standpoint of a reviewer, I did notice the book could have used better editing.
As the publisher stated, “At the specific preference of the author, PublishAmerica allowed this work to remain exactly as the author intended, verbatim, without editorial input.” In my humble opinion, and it is just that; this author should have listened to his publisher.

“I Am Not a Slave, So I Write” would be an interesting read for a student of Social Sciences. As for others, it would be a boring read at best. With all the racial references and the depressive racist anger that the book conveys, I found it hard to give it a higher than a C-minus rating. To add insult to injury, the author had nothing better to say in the last three pages; so he just wrote his name, “Willie James Harvey” across the last three.

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