To the biased judge and jury, that means, "I am man/ He is boy/ I am criminal/ He is victim." With an ineffective defense attorney and character witness, Amal is falsely convicted of aggravated assault and battery. Amal knows that the only fact holding weight is that he is black and Jeremy is white. Nor does the truth about what happened that night: the racial slur that instigated the fight, others' actions and Amal's actual involvement. Where Amal came from and who he really is-a beloved son, an artist and poet, a student aiming for college-do not seem to matter in the courtroom. He knows the details well because Umi, his mother, makes him watch a video of it every year, insisting " you gotta remember/ where you came from!" This memory is quickly supplanted by the bleak present: Amal is in a courtroom awaiting a verdict on his involvement in a fight that left another boy, Jeremy Mathis, in a coma. Part one of three opens with 16-year-old Amal recounting his birth. 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. Zoboi and Salaam masterfully join forces in this mesmerizing novel-in-verse. 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.
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