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by Alyesha Wise (Author), Matthew Cuban Hernandez (Editor), Pages Matam (Editor)
"In My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper, Alyesha Wise invites us into stories that are as raw as they are healing. Through themes of family, identity, and peace, Wise transforms pain into resilience and fracture into unity. This remarkable collection is both intimate and universal-a testament to the strength we discover in our shared humanity."
-Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, author, community organizer, social activist, and motivational speaker
"With My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper, Alyesha Wise delivers a memoir in verse, a carefully structured mixtape of testimony on what it means to be seen, erased and then resurrected. It's a collection that demands more than it asks. Unapologetic and wavering. A commitment to truth telling. And if that's not what poetry should be, then I don't know what poetry is."
-Shihan Van Clief, Tony Award-winning HBO Def Poet and co-founder of Da Poetry Lounge
"Alyesha's poems are love letters to every young person raised on concrete streets and 90s rap songs. They are an ode not just to her brother, but to every little and older brother that brothered us, to every rhyme that raised us, to every lyric that rose our own internal Lazarus, to every childhood memory that carved us into our own church. Her work both cradles us, as well as calls us to face our own mirrors until we become better versions of ourselves. This collection is our favorite rapper's favorite poem, our favorite poet's favorite rhythm. This is the music that both reminds us of where we have come from, and that also calls us back home. And we'll be singing this song, forever."
-Barbara Fant, author of Joy in the Belly of a Riot: Poems, Prayers, Memories, and Meditations (HarperCollins Publishers, 2025)
