Hold What Makes You Whole: Poems

This is the audio version of Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker's tenth book, Hold What Makes You Whole. It is read by the author with original music sprinkled in the reading.

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PRAISE.

Hold What Makes You Whole is a gratifying meditative collection of poems accompanied by kaleidoscopic visual imagery that pulls you in, settles your mind, and makes way for one's own reflections.' — Lisa Willis (she/her), executive director of Cave Canem Foundation

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THE BOOK.

Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker's (he/him) tenth book, Hold What Makes You Whole, is a pocket-sized full-color collection of new and selected works from an award-winning opera librettist, musician, and graphic designer.

Hold What Makes You Whole is a 200-page compilation of jazz, Blackness, self care, fatherhood, Star Wars, social justice, music, and memory. 

On the cover of the book is Amaker’s great-great aunt Ruth Robinson, a poet and community leader who published her first book at the age of 65.

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MEET MARCUS. 

Marcus Amaker is a husband, a dad, a son, a music nerd, and a Star Wars obsessive. He served as the first Poet Laureate of Charleston, South Carolina, from 2016-22. In 2021, he became an Academy of American Poets fellow.

His work has been recognized by The Washington Post, The Kennedy Center, American Poets Magazine, Chicago Opera Theater, Button Poetry, NPR, The Chicago Tribune, PBS NewsHour, and more.

In addition to more than 40 electronic music albums, Marcus' poem “The Rain” is on two Grammy-nominated records. June 3, 2021, was named “Marcus Amaker Day” by the mayor of Charleston, SC.