Pulchritude is a collection of poems documenting the heart wrenching, eye winking, laugh-inducing, tear jerking resilience of African-Americans and people of African descent throughout history and modern times in the face of chaos and tragedy. It is a birthday party for pain. A celebration of setbacks. A praise dance for devastation.
Every story showcases the entrance, the dwelling in, or striding out of turmoil. Each is fully equipped with endearing, enraging, and enlightening characters that range from victims, bystanders, to the main inflictors of the struggle at hand.
The book adamantly asserts that it is despite and because of our struggles that black people have been able to carve out culture and bulletproof endurance.
The poems are coupled with vibrant, culturally relevant, illustrations and, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but most times educational footnotes.
The book is split into two sections: "Rhythm & Beauty (R&B)" and "Real".
Part one centers around the beauty in historical, socio-economic and political struggles. Readers stumble upon intimate testimonies from Hogwart's token Black Wizard "Lee Jordan", A Black Mad Hatter, and even a black bumblebee princess who tires of her bougie royal upbringing and runs away from her future as Queen Bee. Featuring poems like "Thank You Letter to Tragedy", "Respectability", "Where Hip-Hop Lives", and "No One Warned the White Teacher in the Hood".
Part two is short and jumps into a sea of quick, untitled poems, examining the beauty of black interpersonal struggles, wounded black relationships, black anxiousness, black regret, and black forgiveness. It also leaves room for bursts of introspection from Michael's own life. Part two featuring numbers such as "Jamaica Look Like", "Give it Up", and "Daddies".
Splashes of healing and humor are interspersed throughout both parts of the book with pieces like "Black Boy Smile", "The Dance", "Puzzle Peace", "Black Book Remedies","Striving", and "Kanye West".