Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi (American Street) and activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five tells the unforgettable story of Amal Shahid, a teenager incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Zoboi and Salaam masterfully join forces in this mesmerizing novel-in-verse. The poems--sharp, uninhibited and full of metaphors and sensory language--quickly establish Amal's voice, laying bare the anger, despair, hope and talent it holds.
Part one of the three-part novel begins with16-year-old Amal in a courtroom awaiting a verdict on his involvement in a fight that left another boy in a coma. Where Amal came from and who he really is do not matter, nor does the truth about what happened that night: the only fact holding weight is that he is Black and the other boy is white. Amal is falsely convicted of aggravated assault and battery. Part I ends as he rides a bus to the juvenile detention center where the rest of the novel is set. In juvenile detention, Amal survives through art and poetry: "I bang out a rhythm/ make the door a drum/ make my fist a mic/ make my words a bullhorn/ make my truth the air."
While Zoboi and Salaam create a young protagonist who is truly exceptional, they simultaneously show that his situation is far from exceptional in the U.S. Amal's interactions with other boys in jail show the disproportionate impact of police brutality, mass incarceration and biased legal systems on Black young men. Amal's experience of abuse by the system, as well as his peers', incites raw outrage, but his artistic self-expression offers a subtle yet significant kind of hope. It is a hope borne of anger, that knows the full depths of injustice and still dreams of a better future. --Sylvia Al-Mateen, freelance reviewer and editor