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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For the completion of what task did Kiese Laymon's grandmother used to stay up late on Saturday nights?
(a) Studying for her exams.
(b) Washing the kitchen floors.
(c) Sewing her own clothes.
(d) Doing the laundry.

2. From what state does Kevin Young say that his family hails?
(a) Mississippi.
(b) South Carolina.
(c) Louisiana.
(d) Alabama.

3. How many men does Mitchell Jackson name as belonging to his group of father figures?
(a) Four.
(b) Six.
(c) Five.
(d) Seven.

4. When Kiese Laymon was busy analyzing the Outkast song "Wailin'," what was he supposed to be doing instead?
(a) Writing a paper about "The Cask of Amontillado."
(b) Applying for jobs.
(c) Baking a rhubarb pie for his grandmother.
(d) Applying to graduate schools.

5. The author of the essay "Black and Blue" states that seeing a lone woman walking at night in Jamaica was as common a sight as the sight of what mythic creature?
(a) Unicorn.
(b) Leprechaun.
(c) Loch Ness Monster.
(d) Sasquatch.

Short Answer Questions

1. Kiese Laymon reports that it "was only after listening to ATLliens" that he realized where he needed to go as a human being and an artist. What did he decide he needed to do?

2. From the deaths of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, how many indictments were handed down?

3. Kevin Young begins his essay "Blacker Than Thou" by discussing which movie in which Steve Martin plays the lead role?

4. To begin the essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning," Claudia Rankine relates a story about a friend of hers who had just given birth to a baby boy and whose first thought upon his birth was how she could get him out of the country. This thought occurred to her even before she had performed what two actions?

5. What musician does Kevin Young name as the most prominent example of a white person living as a black person?

Short Essay Questions

1. Name at least three actions that the author of "Composite Pops" attributes to all of the men he describes as Pops, his composite father.

2. How does the poem "Queries of Unrest" connect to the part of the collection that it opens, entitled Reckoning?

3. What event does the author of "Composite Pops" name as the one that taught him that he must be able to save himself?

4. What distinction does Kiese Laymon make between "stank" and "freshness" (118) in his essay "Da Art of Storytellin' (A Prequel)"?

5. Why does Kevin Young insert "[name withheld]" rather than naming the killer responsible for the murders in Charleston?

6. What was the object mentioned in the very first lines of OutKast's music first heard by Kiese Laymon and why did the object's mention draw him in?

7. What does Kevin Young identify as the main problem with Rachel Dolezal's claim of African ancestry?

8. Who does Claudia Rankine name as the person who created "a new pathway for how to think about a lynched body" (147) and what does she mean?

9. What is People's Justice and what is the organization's goal?

10. What does the author of "Composite Pops" say that a boy must do if he is "not blessed with a father or gifted with a dynamic stand-in" (180)?

(see the answer keys)

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