Object Lesson

"We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake," said Fredrick Douglas about the abolitionist movement in 1852. Jennifer Jean's latest collection Object Lesson answers this call to action as it explores sex-trafficking and objectification in twenty-first century America. Jean uses relentless, dire, vital language-often tinged with hope-to pull us into these latest, darkest stories of our homeland. Her intensely crafted lyric narratives and persona poems are based on poetry workshops with sex-trafficking survivors through the Free2Write Poetry program. Other pieces are based on in-person, or researched, interviews with survivors of what is definitively modern-day slavery. These intensely crafted, lyric narratives and persona poems are about sex-trafficking and objectification in America. Many pieces are based on poetry workshops with sex-trafficking survivors through the Free2Write Poetry program. Other pieces are based on in-person, or researched, interviews with survivors of what is definitively modern-day slavery.