CURB

Photo of CURB showing the cover and several pages with rubbings made in blue and black ink.

CURB is a work of documentary poetics that focuses on hate crimes committed against South Asian immigrants and descendants of immigrants in the United States. Divya Victor’s text “centers on three historical scenes that represent nationally significant hate-crimes: the assault on and death of Navroze Mody, after leaving a café (New Jersey, 1987); the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi (Arizona, 2001), while planting flowers outside his own gas station; the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, while he was having an after-work drink at a bar (Kansas, 2017).” The poems are accompanied by rubbings made from sidewalks and curbs, highlighting the everyday public spaces in which these people were attacked.

A trade edition of CURB is also available from Nightboat Books for those who would like to read the complete text.

Divya Victor. CURB. Designed and printed by Aaron Cohick. Colorado Springs: The Press at Colorado College, 2019.

Title page from CURB, showing the title printed in red ink underneath a rubbing in blue ink.

Excerpt from CURB, with the poem title printed in red ink.

Excerpt from CURB with a sidewalk rubbing in blue ink underneath the text.

Excerpt from CURB with sidewalk rubbings in blue and black ink.

CURB is structured so that some pages fold out like a map.