First edition. 66pp. Perfect bound card covers. Near fine. Scarce first work of award-winning African-American poet. Mullen grew up in a small Black community in Fort Worth, Texas that spoke a local vernacular that her family, hailing from Pennsylvania, did not. Her experience there offered her a sense of otherness that was isolating, but also nurturing of her keen powers of observation. A collection that incorporates her feminism, and responds to the Civil Rights movement and social and cultural movements of the 60-70s as they relate to African and Mexican American communities. In her own words the work “features the plain, colloquial free verse that my mother appreciates.” Mullen is a poetry and Black literature Professor at UCLA and is also known for rediscovering Fran Ross's important and once overlooked novel, Oreo.