The Big Smoke, Paperback

The legendary Jack Johnson (1878 1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers and white America to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka s third work of poetry, follows the fighter s journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka s book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson s complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.