In her debut collection of poetry, Arc & Hue, Tara Betts articulates deeply-felt human emotion in a lyrical, beautiful way. Betts is a poet for the people. In her work, she celebrates the black female body, and rages against those who would assault it. She remembers the Civil Rights struggle, and offers a fresh perspective on the old issue of race. She creates a disturbing narrative of poverty that might just express more about class in a few lines of verse than an entire scholarly book ever could. Betts is also a poet’s poet, and the work collected in Arc & Hue is often stunning.