Don t say practical criticism, say fuck the police

Abstract

This article responds to John Wilkinson s piece, Moreover: Reading Alfred Starr Hamilton . Opening with a consideration of the connections between language, law, economy, and freedom, it draws attention to Wilkinson s discussion of letters Hamilton wrote to the Montclair Police Department in 2020. These letters suggest that Hamilton s workmight be usefully read as emerging fromthe economy of racial capitalism, and indicate the limits of his poetic search for freedom.