Don't Say Practical Criticism, Say Fuck the Police

This article responds to John Wilkinson’s piece, ‘Moreover: Reading Alfred Starr
Hamilton’. Opening with a consideration of the connections between language,
law, economy, and freedom, it draws attention to Wilkinson’s discussion of letters
Hamilton wrote to the Montclair Police Department in 2020. These letters suggest
that Hamilton’s workmight be usefully read as emerging fromthe economy of racial
capitalism, and indicate the limits of his poetic search for freedom.