Through Words, Beats, & Life and Penmanship Publishing, D.C.'s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Malachi Byrd has released his first fully published collection of poems. Crowning Too Early (2017) is a narrative commentary on the erasure of Black childhood. For the young adults that were not afforded the opportunity to be children; for the princes and princesses that were crowned too early. Navigating difficulties with institutional racism, addiction, inadequacy, and mental health, Malachi takes us on the tragic yet filling journey of the bright-eyed Brown boy becoming the man of the house. A step evolved from the juxtaposition of poverty and privilege in Which Picture Would They Use? (2015), C.T.E. embraces the two years of Princeton University under his belt and lends us the eyes of a boy working overtime to align his experiences with his theories and unapologetically stumbling towards his best self.