Historia|Research Press Releases "millennYELL," a Book of Poetry

Chicago, IL, August 26, 2022 --(PR.com)-- Historia|Reseach Press announces the release of "millennYELL: diatribes of self-discovery," a collection of poems intending to complicate the characterization of millennials as naively hopeful or as helplessly impotent. In turns blistering and blithesome, Bryan D. Wright's first book of poetry sweeps the personal, political, social, and cultural minefields left behind by the culture warriors of America’s previous generations. His poems are a lament for the loss of the commonweal during the era of school shootings, college student loan debt, social media and white supremacist insurrection – and also a rally cry to take action, to defeat anguish, and to seek meaning from the alienation pervading American society at the outset of the twenty-first century.

In 2018, Pew Research Center adopted a definition of the millennial generation as persons born between 1981 and 1996. After reaching adulthood as teenagers and college students, millennials in the United States have been most closely identified with the term, hope, a nod to their influence in electing the first Black male president in American history in 2008. More recently, after reaching their mid-thirties and early forties, millennials have been lamented for their diminished lifetime opportunities due to crushing college student loan debt and their difficult path to affluence following the two most severe world recessions since the Great Depression. "millenYELL," a Historia|Research Press publication, expresses one millennial's reflections on coming of age and early adulthood.

“Since I was a child, I've always found writing thoughts and feelings down to be a necessary catharsis in traversing an uncertain world,” Mr. Wright says when asked about his interest in poetic expression. “I've always admired the bravery of those that feel compelled to share their insights through any medium,” he adds. When asked to reflect on what his written words intend to achieve, Mr. Wright reflects, “If my words ring in common with [the thoughts of] any sullen soul out there, know that you're not alone in an ever entangled yet ever alienated existence in which we've find ourselves.”

Kirkus Review lauds "millennYELL" as an “intriguing... poetry collection with much verbal cleverness.” The reviewer praises Mr. Wright’s debut book of poetry, noting that he “signals his overall stance on what it is to be a millennial by the titles given to his collection’s four sections: 'niHilism,' 'lOnging,' 'desPair' and finally 'promisE.' The irregular capitalization subtly evokes the stumbling topography of a sidewalk buckled by tree roots—yet the capitals also spell out HOPE, nicely summing up the millennial experience.”

“(Our times are) fraught with inequalities and injustices that sometimes drive us to debaucheries in the search to understand our own personal journey and meaning in life,” Mr. Wright explains the tenor of his poems. Nonetheless, he sees the possibility for a better future: “The truth of our experience and society around us is the inherent tragedy and beauty of life. Our actions are what drive the impetus for change.”

The first generation to reach adulthood in the new millennium has confronted the traditional torments of self-discovery and human agency in uniquely troubling times. In the struggle to make their own history, millennials have given birth or nurtured third-wave feminism, Black Lives Matter, social media influencers, the occupy movement, a Green New Deal, the #MeToo movement, and a revitalized belief in democratic socialism. Their consumer choices and preferences have created new cultural phenomena such as hip-hop crossover artists, online dating, gender fluidity and body positivity, Harry Potter, the gig economy, and a renewed faith in social activism and community organizing.

Mr. Wright’s poems in "millennYELL" are presented under four main themes of poetic expression – nihilism, longing, despair, and promise – each separated by a timeline of related events in American history from 1990 to 2020. His poetry grapples with key adversities for young adults: the tenuous grounds on which human meaning and action rest, the risks associated with desiring something over nothing, the anxiety that accompanies the pursuit of goals and values, and the latent (and dismal) prospects for success at the outset of every lifetime of endeavor. The poems – disquieting, exacting, and poignant – express key moments of personal anguish and insight that interrupted his prolonged inner dialog on the meaning of adulthood for the first generation to shape the next century and next millennium.

“My generation is caught between apocryphal hope for any expression of self and crushing nihilism for any improvement in our state of affairs,” Mr. Wright surmises, seemingly in reference to social media and recent political culture. He expresses an optimistic, if difficult, path forward for his generation: “Despite the fractured environment in which we've wandered into maturity, we must be the ones that spur the world to progress.”

Historia|Research Press will release "millennYELL: diatribes of self-discovery" on Amazon Kindle on September 10, 2022, at Amazon.com.

Media Contact:

Joseph H. Wycoff, PhD
Historia Research LLC
47 W Polk St, Unit 100-150
Chicago, IL 60605
https://www.historiaresearch.com

For more information, contact:

Historia|Research Press
312-818-8849
contact@historiaresearch.com