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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
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      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
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  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
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Book Review: This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album by Alan Chazaro

This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album
Alan Chazaro
Black Lawrence Press
2019
978-1-62557-825-9
37 pages
$9.95


Alan Chazaro is a former high school teacher at the Oakland School for the Arts, Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco, and June Jordan Poetry for the People scholar at UC Berkeley. This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album was the winner of the Spring 2018 Black River Chapbook Competition. Chazaro’s debut full-length collection, Piñata Theory, was awarded the 2018 Hudson Prize and is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. His poems have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Puerto del Sol, Huizache, Acentos Review, and Ninth Letter. 


Review





















A Review of Alan Chazaro's This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album

Alan Chazaro’s This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album delivers the confessional voice of a young Latino man growing up in the Bay Area. In “580 West,” Chazaro mimics the styling of a coastline, beginning first with the appearance of the landscape before setting off into the cartographic details that truly characterize the writer’s home. The musicality of “580 West” contains a duality that shapes the poem’s language as descriptors center on the city’s sounds:
Listen: this is scorpions in the dark, the buzz of moonlight
catching almost-white teeth. This is hyphy as we glide
 
the Bay Bridge, bone and cartilage scribbling fences with tattered
alphabets.

Chazaro’s poems follow the styling of cartography by defining each poem’s experience, and then interrogating the restrictions between the subject’s borders, like those between setting and individual, boyhood and manhood, music and language, and joy and shame.
 
In examining the relationship between setting and individual, “A Millennial Walks into a Bar and Says:” is a poem that illustrates the conflation between physical and virtual reality, which works to define a generation’s anxiety with digital spaces as they interact with others in public. Each line is an outpour of information that shares almost no relation to one another, except for the musical conceit weaving each memory. For example: “Nothing / like US military drones missing their targets. Nothing. / But everything like jazz quartets” and “Tchoupitoulas; Calliope; St. Claude. Find me / there. I want to remix the wrongs and make a mixtape / of imperfection.” The poem also depicts personal conflict: “I’m Mexican just as I really can’t say / I’m American. Someone built this bridge between me. They carved / hyphens from the air for me to cross.” Furthermore, the speaker’s revelation is like many millennial Latinxs, revisiting the social construction of Latinidad unique to the U.S., which forcefully questions the conflation of national identity, ethnicity, and the language that defines the category. Technology takes the forefront in a piece that begins in a bar, illustrating the impact technology imposes on how people become overloaded with search results: “How this can all pour / from my fingers in a matter of minutes like outdated / newspapers.” Chazaro’s “A Millennial Walks into a Bar and Says:” is a generation’s song about people’s relationship with technology in social settings, and more importantly, the challenges individuals face with themselves when having access to an abundance of information.    
 
In relation to questionable sources of information, “Some of Our Boyhoods” inspects role models of manhood that begin as an ode: “praise the older cousins.” In this poem, the speaker revisits his boyhood, speaking of his role models as knowledgeable and well-rounded: “where we got our cool from, pretended like we knew / what good weed smelled like, how to slide a condom on.” Although amusing, the tone of the poem later shifts to one of shaming, where the act of imitation is internalized, and the kids grow up to act as their older cousins. As the piece ties memories together, there is a moment when a boy cries after losing his hamster, and the “cool” response is to name him “a fuckin’ fag.” Interrogating gendered socialization is a common theme throughout Chazaro's chapbook. For instance, in “Pretty,” the speaker describes acceptable attitudes for young men in high school: “we’d only touch / through fist / & gorilla chest;” and by using a past-tense voice to make a point in hindsight indicates the challenge of surpassing learned behaviors that suppress expressing emotions between men. Not only does the speaker examine rigid attitudes imposed on men, but also the illogical method of language becoming gendered. The title “Pretty” gives importance to the poet’s point, particularly when the speaker notes his discomfort with the word “pretty:”: “to say pretty / would be hella gay of me.” The poem depicts the speakers’ past, one that conforms to macho characteristics exemplified by role models and social attitudes; however, by shifting tenses in both poems, readers see the growth in criticizing rigid gender constructions.
 
Alan Chazaro’s This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album is a musical tour of the Bay Area, mapping memory and confession across a landscape of issues prevailing over millennials and younger generations. Each poem’s ability to loudly reveal a façade, of what feels like a recurring speaker, reminds readers: “shame is a parade / of licking tongues and everyone is / invited.” Rap being prevalent in Chazaro’s Bay Area makes sound a perfect conceit for identity as music follows a specific theory of beats, melody, harmony, and rhythm; and yet, music, like our speaker, fluctuates and changes for growth. Alan Chazaro’s This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album is a full-volume “parade” set to invite listeners to a series of individual growths as each poem’s façade expands into a sonic city. 

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Miguel is a Lewis University alum. He is the Book Review Editor for Jet Fuel Review. He has been published in Kissing Dynamite Poetry, The Ekphrastic Review, 30N, EFNIKS, Rogue Agent, The Rising Phoenix Review among other places. He is a fellow of the Wolny Writing Residency. He also writes for the Jet Fuel Review blog: Not Your Binary: A QTPOC Reading Column.
​​

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  • Home
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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Art Fall 2021 >
      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
      • Camilla Taylor Fall 2021
      • Guilherme Bergamini Fall 2021
      • Emanuela Iorga Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Poetry Fall 2021 >
      • Maureen Alsop Fall 2021
      • Annah Browning Fall 2021
      • Romana Iorga Fall 2021
      • Natalie Hampton Fall 2021
      • Sherine Gilmour Fall 2021
      • Adam Day Fall 2021
      • Amanda Auchter Fall 2021
      • Adam Tavel Fall 2021
      • Sara Moore Fall 2021
      • Karen Rigby Fall 2021
      • Daniel Zhang Fall 2021
      • Erika Lutzner Fall 2021
      • Kindall Fredricks Fall 2021
      • Cin Salach Fall 2021
      • Andrew Zawacki Fall 2021
      • Micah Ruelle Fall 2021
      • Rachel Stempel Fall 2021
      • Haley Wooning Fall 2021
      • Rikki Santer Fall 2021
      • Evy Shen Fall 2021
      • Suzanne Frischkorn Fall 2021
      • Danielle Rose Fall 2021
      • Eric Burgoyne Fall 2021
      • John Cullen Fall 2021
      • Maureen Seaton Fall 2021
      • Hannah Stephens Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Nonfiction Fall 2021 >
      • Kevin Grauke Fall 2021
      • Courtney Justus Fall 2021
      • Amy Nicholson Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Fiction Fall 2021 >
      • Tina Jenkins Bell Fall 2021
      • David Obuchowski Fall 2021
      • Thomas Misuraca Fall 2021
      • Aiden Baker Fall 2021
      • Jenny Magnus Fall 2021
  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022
  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
      • Edward Lee Fall 2022
      • Harryette Mullen Fall 2022
      • Jezzelle Kellam Fall 2022
      • Irina Greciuhina Fall 2022
      • Natalie Christensen Fall 2022
      • Mark Yale Harris Fall 2022
      • Amy Nelder Fall 2022
      • Bette Ridgeway Fall 2022
      • Ursula Sokolowska Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
      • William Stobb Fall 2022
      • e Fall 2022
      • Stefanie Kirby Fall 2022
      • Lisa Ampleman Fall 2022
      • Will Cordeiro Fall 2022
      • Jesica Davis Fall 2022
      • Peter O'Donovan Fall 2022
      • Mackenzie Carignan Fall 2022
      • Jason Fraley Fall 2022
      • Barbara Saunier Fall 2022
      • Chad Weeden Fall 2022
      • Nick Rattner Fall 2022
      • Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow Fall 2022
      • Summer J. Hart Fall 2022
      • Daniel Suá​rez Fall 2022
      • Sara Kearns Fall 2022
      • Millicent Borges Accardi Fall 2022
      • Liz Robbins Fall 2022
      • john compton Fall 2022
      • Esther Sadoff Fall 2022
      • Whitney Koo Fall 2022
      • W. J. Lofton Fall 2022
      • Rachel Reynolds Fall 2022
      • Kimberly Ann Priest Fall 2022
      • Annie Przypyszny Fall 2022
      • Konstantin Kulakov Fall 2022
      • Nellie Cox Fall 2022
      • Jennifer Martelli Fall 2022
      • SM Stubbs Fall 2022
      • Joshua Bird Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Fiction Fall 2022 >
      • Otis Fuqua Fall 2022
      • Hannah Harlow Fall 2022
      • Natalia Nebel Fall 2022
      • Kate Maxwell Fall 2022
      • Helena Pantsis Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Nonfiction Fall 2022 >
      • Courtney Ludwick Fall 2022
      • Anna Oberg Fall 2022
      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022