In The Stoop and the Steeple, Nancy Meyer directs an uncompromising lens at the fifteen years she spent with Mel, a Jamaican artist she met on a New York stoop, and faces the memory of Zebulon, a man her ancestors enslaved. A man who climbed a steeple and crowed. Was it for freedom? We will never know, but the mystery of this image drives the speaker into unexpected discoveries.

Nancy and Mel married, raised a child, divorced. Zebulon ran away, was captured, and sold. Through lyric and narrative poetry, Nancy tells a personal story against the backdrop of 18th century documents and her eighth-great-grandmother’s diary. The poems create a prism, each one catches a different light, expanding our vision. Of a mixed-race marriage, of the dreams that twisted into white supremacy, of the stories families tell and those they keep secret.

Together with its reader guide, The Stoop and The Steeple invites deeper contemplation of idealism, rupture, pain, and love across generations and in Modern America, and a study resource for educators, social justice groups, and individuals.

A “history scrolled on all our skins,” no matter the color.

—Sally Ashton, author Listening to Mars and The Behaviour of Clocks

It is one of the most important books I’ve read this year. One I will return to again and again.

—Rusty Morrison, author of Risk, Editor of Omnidawn

It is a wonderful and brave book, alive with seeking.

—Dr. Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Professor of American Studies and English at Amherst College

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!