Ali Black’s Poetry Is Alive

Ali Black kicks off her first full-length poetry collection with a poem titled “Completion.” In it, she brings forward memories from her mother’s funeral, where friends and family members told her how beautiful her mother looked in her casket.

My mother looked better alive, Black asserts.

It’s a powerful thread that connects every poem in the Cleveland poet's new collection, titled We Look Better Alive. Poems dip in and out of stories about lost loved ones, health issues, beauty standards, racism and celebrity moments. Memories, hopes, mournings and celebrations all mix together into a balanced, real snippet of life.

“These are very much personal and autobiographical poems. And so the speaker is very much some version of me, and a lot of the poems are really about me struggling with grief and loss,” Black says.

RELATED: Shop Cleveland's Best Independent Bookstores for Your Next Read

The collection, published by Burnside Review Press, compiles more than 50 poems of varying forms and lengths. Some delve into tragic and personal moments like grieving a parent, while others dig into cultural touchstones like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s performance of “WAP” at the 2021 Grammys, Beyonce’s country era and Kash Doll’s “snapback," or her physical rebound after giving birth.

Many of the pieces first stemmed from grappling with loss, not only of her mother, but also her father-in-law and a cousin. From there, Black branched out into other interests.

“I started also getting interested in the Black female body," Black says. "I started writing these poems about that, and poems about beauty, and poems about plastic surgery, and poems about not just the women that I know, but in addition to that, the celebrity figure.”

I forget / this city is the worst place / for Black women to be alive, Black writes in the collection's titular poem, referencing the 2020 Bloomberg Citylab report that named Cleveland the lowest-ranked city for Black women’s health and overall outcomes. For Black women to be alive. / This is what I wish for every morning / when I wake up to check my city’s news / page on Instagram. Almost every morning, / I read about another dead Black woman. 

We Look Better Alive follows Black’s acclaimed 2020 chapbook release, If It Heals at All, which was a finalist for the 2021 Ohioana Book Award in poetry. The new full collection compiles work from her thesis in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program, which she completed in 2022.

Beyond publishing her new collection, Black is busy directing and teaching a class in her writing program The Most Promising, meeting with a dozen students every week. The program is a part of Balance Point Studios, an art-focused education nonprofit that she runs with her husband Donald, an accomplished photographer.

The educational programs have helped foster young artists’ confidence and skills at an early stage in their work and provide a resource for young creatives in the city. Through The Most Promising, Black has introduced young writers to established creatives like Prince Shakur, Ariana Brown, Kendra Allen and Noor Hindi.

“I was a very good student, and because I was just attracted to it on my own, I did very well. But I always think about — had I had some sort of mentor or coach, what would that have been like?” she says. “There are a lot of young people who love to write, and Cleveland doesn't really have too many programs that support young writers. That's very important to me.”

Black’s release party for We Look Better Alive is planned for May 2 at Coda in Tremont. The reading will include copies of her book, appetizers and drinks, along with an afterparty at Dante. The party arrives four days after the book’s official release on April 28 — Black's mother’s birthday.

“A lot of the poems are to her, for her, but also the book is dedicated to four or five of the matriarchs in my family who have since passed away,” Black says, “and so I just thought it would be a special thing to do, and a nice tribute to her.”

For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.

Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.