{"product_id":"the-monster-i-am-today-leontyne-price-and-a-life-in-verse-9780810143746","title":"The Monster I Am Today: Leontyne Price and a Life in Verse","description":"Leontyne Price remains one of the twentieth century's most revered opera singers and, notably, the first African American to achieve such international acclaim. In movements encompassing poetry and prose, writer and musician Kevin Simmonds explores Price as an icon, a diva, a woman, and a patriot--and himself as a fan, a budding singer, and a gay man--through passages that move polyphonically through the contested spaces of Black identity, Black sound, Black sensibility, and Black history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Structured operatically into overture, acts, and postlude, \u003ci\u003eThe Monster I Am Today\u003c\/i\u003e guides the reader through associative shifts from arias like \"weather events\" and Price's forty-two-minute final ovation to memories of Simmonds's coming of age in New Orleans. As he melds lyric forms with the biography of one of classical music's greatest virtuosos, Simmonds composes a duet that spotlights Price's profound influence on him as a person and an artist: \"That's how I hear: Her.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Simmonds, Kevin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/15\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Triquarterly Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780810143746\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 184","brand":"Kevin Simmonds","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39327311593547,"sku":"9780810143746","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0021\/1697\/6715\/products\/img_d4814a18-cd5d-4311-a535-9e0b05e7f074.jpg?v=1618940443","url":"https:\/\/blackbookstore.com\/products\/the-monster-i-am-today-leontyne-price-and-a-life-in-verse-9780810143746","provider":"Black Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}