Screw The Wall: and other Brown People Poems

Praise For

SCREW THE WALL!




In Screw the Wall, Juan Manuel Pérez answers the question: what can brown poetry do for you?

He does so as he digs in and swings for and at the fences. This book of impactful poetry deals

mainly with barriers-barriers erected by poverty, prejudice, culture, and language; barriers

imagined and real; barriers conquered, and barriers left to be scaled. These poems range from the

humorous, to the satiric, to the poignant, to the nostalgic. A few of these worthwhile works might

strike a nerve or two with their readers, but as Pérez reminds us about the border wall in his

poem A Promising Letter to a Worrisome Trump, "No need to worry; We'll get over it!"

Likewise, In Screw the Wall Juan Manuel Pérez has hit a home run deep over the wall.

Alan Berecka

author of The Hamlet of Stittville

2017-2018 Corpus Christi Poet Laureate




If you have never heard the poetry of Juan Manuel Pérez then you are in for a treat. You must

hear his words, as reading them is not enough. He writes the poems that many are afraid to

discuss. He writes the poems many will hide from. He writes the poems that all need to hear. His

words are diverse and full of compassion, but he speaks the hard truths our Nation struggles with

daily. These truths have divided families, increased the struggles for minorities (which are

becoming the majority), and left those affected silent and waiting for a chance. Pérez offers

words full of insight and empathy and his influences are strong.

Malia A. Pérez, Ed. D.

author of Everything Depends Upon The Little Things

2009-2015 World Book Night Ambassador and Three-Time Teacher Of The Year




In his most recent poetry collection, Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems, Juan

Manuel Pérez invites us into his soul, beckoning: "I invite you into my soul / Somewhere

between Texas and Mexico." And it is in this "somewhere" where his poetry happens: poetry of

lived experience, poetry of place, poetry where "America is the land of the lost" and the only

thing that will shine a light in its dark path is love. This collection is full of "strong, bronze

Chicano poems," and I am reading.

Octavio Quintanilla

author of Wasted Time

2018-2020 San Antonio Poet Laureate