The Cracks Between What We Are and What We Are Supposed to Be forms an extended consideration not only of Harryette Mullen s own work, methods, and interests as a poet, but also of issues of central importance to African American poetry and language, women s voices, and the future of poetry.Together, these essays and interviews highlight the impulses and influences that drive Mullen s work as a poet and thinker, and suggest unique possibilities for the future of poetic language and its role as an instrument of identity and power.