Plain Black Teeth

By Chuka Nestor Emezue

Plain Black Teeth is a striking debut chapbook by Chuka Nestor Emezue that blends tenderness and terror, satire and lyricism, myth and memory. Structured as a triptych-Plain, Black, and Teeth-the collection draws deeply from Igbo oral traditions to examine diasporic dislocation, flawed masculinity, and the subtle violence of survival.

With an unflinching voice, Emezue guides us through cities, bedrooms, altars, and battlefields, giving breath to morgue attendants, street prophets, fractured women, and broken sons. These poems confront American masculinity head-on, transforming language into weapon, wound, and witness.

Infused with sardonic wit, Black theology, longing, and postcolonial ache, Plain Black Teeth dwells in the space between confession and curse, gospel and elegy. If you've ever stifled a scream, loved someone dangerously, or lingered at the threshold of a room that would not let you in, this collection will stay with you.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FGY8CGC5
• ISBN13: 9798218355364
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: White Carrot Press
• Length: 76 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"