"Alexander, an African American, explores tensions inherent in gender and race and expresses the ambivalence of motherhood in jazz-inflected tones." - ELLE "In narratives sweetened by the lyric pulse and pierced through by felicitous turns of irony, Alexander chronicles the world of 'black and tan'. Her poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh. Race is present in her poems in the way that sex, class, age, even weather are present in all of our lives." - The Washington Post "Alexander is an unusual thing, a sensualist of history, a romanticist of race. She weaves biography, history, experience, pop culture and dream. Her poems make the public and private dance together." - Chicago Tribune"