Counting Descent, Clint Smith s remarkable debut collection of poetry, complicates our conceptions of black adolescence and how a black child coming of age in 21st century America navigates the ever-present cognitive dissonance of belonging to both a family and community that celebrate the totality of your humanity and a larger world that consistently renders you a caricature of fear. These poems move is mesmerizing fashion from the prisons cells of Massachusetts to the front porches of New Orleans from the classrooms of Washington D.C. to the streets of Ferguson, all the while reflecting on masculinity, class, and the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey that meditates on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward."