My epic poem, “Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present,” was described by Norman Leer as “a powerful expression of black anger and despair. Waters clearly knows his history…. I’m impressed that Waters is able to relate slavery back to historic and current African practices, which were in fact aggravated and exploited but not originated by Europeans…. The poem has some excellent materials on the sexual exploitation of blacks by whites during slavery, and on the artificial color categories that emerged from this and that were used to buttress segregation and racism. Stylistically, the poem is strong when it uses repetition to support its angers and ironies…. One might say that Waters’ poem celebrates the heroism of black survival.”