Mao writes to escape being "trapped in someone else's imagination," literally shaping poems that challenge empire, cultural plunder, and the ongoing violence Asian people experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, both in the U.S. and her birthplace of Wuhan.

Beginning with Reagan's war on drugs, Ramsey examines the crack epidemic. He exposes links between the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and the consequences we live with today—a racist criminal justice system, mass incarceration, gentrification, and police brutality.