unlocked: the laureate years

By Andru Defeye

UNLOCKED // THE LAUREATE YEARS is a dangerously authentic poetry memoir of what might be the strangest five years of America from one of the most unorthodox voices in the modern poetic canon.

"I didn't set out to write a book. I set out to write something true-again and again-for five years straight and this is what showed up.

These poems come from street corners and protests. From breakups and funerals. 3am conversations and two years of solitude.

Some of these poems got printed in newspapers or read on TV. Some were written while high eating cereal in my boxers. Some got standing ovations. Some got me cussed out. Some still feel unfinished. But they're all in here."

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Andru Defeye is a nationally recognized poet, TEDx speaker, cultural strategist, and community architect who served as the Poet Laureate of Sacramento from 2020 to 2024. Known for blending street wisdom with spiritual depth, Defeye's work spans stages, protests, classrooms, and cultural institutions.

In 2022, he was awarded a prestigious Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for his work using poetry as a tool for public healing, resistance, and joy.

His TEDx talk, "Pronouncing Love Right: Ice Cream and Fragile Masculinity," showcases the bold vulnerability and genre-defying presence that defines his voice.

Founder of numerous creative platforms and poetic movements, Defeye's work lives at the intersection of art, action, and unapologetic truth. UNLOCKED // the laureate years is his first full-length collection-raw, unfiltered, and entirely his own.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F3DB3DH7
• ISBN13: 9798316183333
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 106 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"