The Orientation Book Partners will compile resources to provide context for and extend the book throughout the summer. Follow CSWIMstagram and check back on this page for updates!
Listen to the music from They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us Until They Kill Us
In almost each of Abdurraqib’s essays, there is a particular kind of music or moment where music happens that he is drawn to — a certain song, album, or artist that his attention directs the reader toward. You can find these pieces through our CSWIM Spotify playlists. Each playlist is based on one of the essays from the book.
Poems by Hanif Abdurraqib
Other than an essayist, Hanif Abdurraqib is also an acclaimed poet. His poetry books include The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (2016) and A Fortune For Your Disaster (2019). Many of the artists and songs he writes about in They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us have also appeared in his poems. Here is a short list of Abdurraqib’s poems (performed and published) that are connected to essays within or outside of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us:
Poems related to artists within the book:
- Ode to Prince (Button Poetry) - read "The Night Prince Walked On Water" on page 27
- At My First Punk Rock Show Ever, 1998 (Button Poetry) - read "I Wasn't Brought Here, I Was Born: Surviving Punk Rock Long Enough to Find Afropunk” on page 49
- Tell a Friend That You're in Love With Them Tonight: on "Your Type" (Drunk Education) and Carly Rae Jepsen – “E•MO•TION” (The Account Magazine) - read “Carly Rae Jepsen Loves You Back” on page 22 and “Carly Rae Jepsen And The Kingdom Of Desire” on page 284
- The Ghost of Marvin Gaye Sits In The Ruins Of The Old Livingston Flea Market And Considers Monogamy (Frontier Poetry), The Ghost of Marvin Gaye Plays the Dozens with the Pop Charts (The Rumpus) (find spoken word version here), and Marvin Gaye and The Prestige (O, Miami) - read Marvin Gaye interludes on pages 5, 47, 95, 113, 165, and 275
Poems related to artists outside the book:
- The Day Formation Dropped after Big Freedia (Button Poetry) - on Beyoncé’s 2016 album, Formation
- Ode to Biggie Smalls, Ending in Gold (Poetry Slam Inc) - on Biggie Smalls
- A Song to Make Us Forget the Burning / Faded 2001 (Button Poetry) - on Jay-Z and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
- Ode to Jay-Z, Ending in the Rattle of a Fiend’s Teeth (Winter Tangerine) - on Jay-Z
- Ode to Kanye West in Two Parts, Ending in a Chain of Mothers Rising from the River (Button Poetry) - on Kanye West
- read Abdurraqib's response to his poem (Poetry Society of America)
- The Summer A Tribe Called Quest Broke Up (Muzzle Magazine) - on A Tribe Called Quest
- Rihanna – Birthday Cake (Pinwheel) - on Rihanna
- Olivia Newton John – Let’s Get Physical (Pinwheel) - on Olivia Newton John
- The Four Seasons – “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” (The Account Magazine) - on The Four Seasons’ “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”
- Idioteque (BEOTIS) - on Radiohead’s “Idioteque”
- Ode to Drake, Ending With Blood In A Field (Malcolm Friend, Tumblr) - on Drake
- Ode to Elliott Smith, Ending in the First Snowfall of 2003 (firstfullmoon, Tumblr) - on Elliott Smith
Abdurraqib’s Marvin Gaye interludes
Abdurraqib begins each of the six sections in They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us with an interlude about American singer, songwriter, and musician Marvin Gaye. Here is some context about Marvin Gaye’s work and life:
- Marvin Gaye sings the American national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game
- From Gaye’s 1971 album, What’s Going On: What's Going On (Live, 1972), God is Love (Live, 1972), and Mercy Mercy Me (Live, 1980)
- Hanif Abdurraqib On Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ (written for What’s Going On’s 50th-anniversary edition of the album)
- Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his own father | April 1, 1984 (on Marvin Gaye’s death)
Book Timeline
Throughout the book, Abdurraqib writes about music, important events in his life, and moments in our cultural and historical memory across time and place. Here is a timeline compiling these for further context of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us:
1963
- 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
1968
- Johnny Cash records the live album, At Folsom Prison
1970
- Marvin Gaye turning point (see II.) (Tami Tarrell dies, his brother returns from Vietnam, etc.)
1971
- Marvin Gaye releases What’s Going On
1977
- Fleetwood Mac releases Rumours
- Richard Hell and the Voidoids release Blank Generation
1980
- Bruce Springsteen releases The River, John Lennon dies
1983
- Marvin Gaye performs at NBA All-Star Game
- Hanif Abdurraqib is born in Columbus
1984
- Marvin Gaye dies, after being shot by his father
1988
- N.W.A. releases Straight Outta Compton, incl. “Fuck the Police”
1991
- March: Eazy-E is accidentally invited to the White House
- Abdurraqib is seven years old, his family moves neighborhoods in Columbus
- Boyz n the Hood comes out
- Rodney King is arrested and brutalized by LAPD officers
- 3rd Bass releases Derelicts of Dialect, incl. “Pop Goes the Weasel”
1995
- Twelve-year-old Abdurraqib hears Nina Simone’s “Pirate Jenny” for the first time
1997
- March: Allen Iverson hits Michael Jordan with a crossover during a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls
- March: The Notorious B.I.G. is killed
- June: Abdurraqib’s mother dies
2001
- 9/11
2002
- Abdurraqib meets Tyler for the first time, at a The Killing Tree show in LaGrange, Illinois; the two then go to an early Fall Out Boy show
2003
- Fall Out Boy show at Knights of Columbus in Chicago on Halloween
- Yetunde Price, Serena Williams’ half-sister, is murdered in Compton, CA
- Bubba Sparxxx releases Deliverance
2005
- Fall Out Boy performs at VH1 ‘Big In ‘05’
- Fall Out Boy releases “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” in From Under The Cork Tree. Abdurraqib and Tyler listen to it during their ‘endless summer’
- Hurricane Katrina hits; Abdurraqib visits New Orleans soon after
2006
- Cute Is What We Aim For (among other emo bands of the moment) releases their first album, The Same Old Blood Rush
- Abdurraqib is in ‘early-20s purgatory’
- My Chemical Romance releases The Black Parade
- Abdurraqib attends ex-girlfriend Marissa’s funeral
- Defiance, Ohio releases their second album, The Great Depression
2007
- Fall Out Boy releases Infinity on High, which Abdurraqib listens to with Tyler
- Abdurraqib attends Tyler’s funeral
- Prince performs at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show
- Foxx releases “Wipe Me Down”
2008
- Abdurraqib’s friend Nick performs as part of the band, Constellations
- Fall Out Boy concert in Chicago
- Barack Obama is elected; The Obamas invite performances by Beyonce and Jay Z during their terms
2009
- Asher Roth releases debut hit single “I Love College”
2010
- Abdurraqib sees Patrick Stump perform at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX
2011
- The Wonder Years releases Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing
2012
- Feb 26: George Zimmerman kills Trayvon Martin
- Feb 26: Abdurraqib sees Atmosphere’s show in St. Cloud, Minnesota
2013
- The Weeknd releases Kiss Land (Abdurraqib hears in concert in Seattle)
- Fall Out Boy reunion show at Subterranean in Chicago
- George Zimmerman is acquitted for the murder of Trayvon Martin
- Theodore Wafer kills Renisha McBride in Michigan
2014
- August 9: Shooting of Michael Brown; Ferguson, Missouri riots
- Schoolboy Q releases Oxymoron (Abdurrqib hears in concert fall 2013)
- Dec 13 National March Against Police Violence
- At the 57th Grammy Awards, Macklemore wins Best Rap Album for The Heist
- Future releases Honest
2015
- Future releases Dirty Sprite 2
- Carly Rae Jepsen releases Emotion
- A string of Black church burnings in the South
- Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states
- Kendrick Lamar releases To Pimp a Butterfly
- Sandra Bland dies
- Serena Williams French Open win
- Freddie Gray dies in Baltimore police custody
- Dylann Roof kills nine Black churchgoers in Charleston
- Offset is arrested and incites a prison riot, is released after eight months of custody
2016
- Marshawn McCarrel, poet and activist, kills himself in Columbus
- Prince dies (April 21)
- Chance The Rapper releases Coloring Book (May 13)
- Pulse nightclub massacre (June 12)
- Trump elected (Nov 8)
- Abdurraqib goes to Cape Cod (December)
2017
- Future releases Future and HNDRXX
- February: postscript; Abdurraqib is on book tour and cries in the John Glenn Columbus International Airport, on his mother’s birthday
- Twenty One Pilots first Grammys win
- Migos releases Culture