And the Walls Came Tumbling

With And the Walls Came Tumbling, his debut collection, writer and educator Darius V. Daughtry, provides an introspective poetic memoir and sweeping cultural critique.
 
Equal parts praise dance and eulogy, And the Walls Came Tumbling is full of vulnerable, introspective poems that explore societal constructs - race, class, gender – and questions their existence in our lives. 
 
Drawing inspiration from and paying homage to emcees and crooners, alike, these poems move with a rhythmic language that makes heads nod and hearts skip beats. Darius’ poems are “mirrors in the morning,” forcing the reader to confront both their own beauty and the ugliness in their worlds.
 
The outcome: a shout that causes the walls’ first cracks.
 
Praise for And the Walls Came Tumbling - 
 
"In this powerful debut collection, Darius Daughtry shows us what it means to find God in the blues and in a grandmother's love, to find the truth behind what the world tells us about our Blackness and our personhood. In forms and free verse, and always with an eye toward rhythm, Daughtry's poetry cuts through the lies we're told and re-told. With these poems that shine an undimmable light, he makes the walls tumble."
 
Ashley M. Jones, 
Author of Magic City Gospel and dark // things 
 
"And the Walls Came Tumbling is a celebration and a warning. Darius Daughtry waxes nostalgic about the early days of hip-hop, first love, and family, while also naming the danger that is being black in America. “Anywhere could be where my black gets me dead,” he writes. Here we find the pockets of joy to be found inside the sunshine state as well as the threat of violence that is as ever-present as the humidity. We find traditional forms, sonnets and odes, handled with precision, as well as a playlist turned into a poem and a golden shovel that would surely make Gwendolyn Brooks stand up and clap. This is a book that says poetry in Florida is alive and well."
 
P. Scott Cunningham,
Founder, O, Miami Poetry Festival and
Author of Ya Te Veo (University of Arkansas Press, 2018)