2. To what danger is the author of the essay "Black and Blue" referring when he writes, "The streets had their own safety. Unlike at home, there I could be myself without fear of bodily harm" (130)?

3. What tragic event had occurred the week before Emily Raboteau took her family on a walk over The High Bridge?

4. What author does the poem "Queries of Unrest" reference in its dedication?

5. For how many years had The High Bridge been inactive before reopening again just before Emily Raboteau and her family took a walk across it?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kevin Young write is one of the best things about being black?

2. What two categories does Kevin Young say white thinking or acting out about being black almost always fall into and what example does he give for each category he names?

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

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

5. 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?

6. How does Emily Raboteau say she wishes to distinguish her role as a mother from both types of mothers depicted in the widely-circulated comic entitled "Still Two Americas"?

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

8. 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)?

9. Why does Garnette Cadogan hold out hope that he will not encounter the same problems while walking in New York City that he had while walking in New Orleans?

10. How is paradox employed within the poem "Queries of Unrest" and to what effect?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Despite the overwhelming gravity of the topic of racial injustice within modern America, Jesmyn Ward speaks to her feelings of hope when looking at the pieces collected within The Fire This Time. Choose three works that contain the theme of hope and discuss how the pieces' messages come together and how they link back to Jesmyn Ward's comments regarding hope in her introduction to the collection.