An unabashedly feminist and womanist anthology honouring Black women across generations and memories.
Featuring the work of Black women poets from Botswana to Brazil, in this collection, we encounter ancestors who made love, just for the sake of love, and women who die with each orgasm while attempting to mark the extent of their own humanities.
This is for the nuns, the singers, the clowns, the diviners and the conjurers who reject the constant attempt to clean up history. The wildly imperfect women of slick braids, shiny skin and succulent lips, building new homes from clouds for future legions.
Here congregate the women, womxn and womyn who do not believe in tough love that disguises hurt just to prove a point. They dance with the dead with exquisite feet, cheekbones high, reflecting their mothers' smiles.
Because no one claps for martyrs, these dirty/pretty women learn to walk cities like they own them, choosing the battles of their hearts.
If this collection teaches anything, it is that love is always messy, that our sacrament requires wet wipes and that we are just flesh and bone honing practice.
Contributions by:
Staceyann Chin,
Nikki Giovanni
Edited by:
Natalia Molebatsi
Imprint: Cassava Republic Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 215mm,
ISBN: 9781913175252
ISBN 10: 1913175251
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 01 June 2022
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
CONTENTS Foreword by Bernardine Evaristo xv Editor’s Note by Natalia Molebatsi xxi Diana Ferrus (South Africa) I’ve Come to Take You Home 1 My Mother Was a Storm 3 This Song of Freedom 4 Nikki Giovanni (usa) The Seamstress of Montgomery 5 A Prayer for Nina 7 Miriam Alves (Brazil) Womanly (Feminil) 8 Subtleties (Sutilezas) 9 I Go Far (Vou Longe) 10 Makhosazana Xaba (South Africa) Women of Xolobeni 11 For Dulcie September 13 Sister to Sister 14 Cheryl L Clarke (usa) History 15 On Their Way to Life 18 Brief Interval 20 Jackie Kay (Scotland) Fanny Eaton – The Jamaican Pre-Raphaelite Muse! 21 A Banquet for The Boys 24 Bonnie Lassie 25 Gcina Mhlophe (South Africa) Camagu Mama Sisulu 26 The Ancient Voices 29 Anni Domingo (Sierra Leone) Empty Cradle 32 The Cutting 34 Because I Am a Girl 36 M NourbeSe Philip (Tobago/Canada) in this together 37 before after/after before 39 when the looting starts … 40 Kadija Sesay (Sierra Leone/uk) Tattoo 44 The Most Beautiful Sound in the World? 45 Stilled Tragedy 46 The Moon Under Water 47 Ana-Maurine Lara (Dominican Republic) La Zafra 48 Call 50 Lebogang Mashile (South Africa) Vulva Volcanoes 53 Family Portrait 56 This Is Not a Poem 58 Ladan Osman (Somalia) Heart Runoff 59 Sacraments 61 Boat Journey 64 ix Staceyann Chin (Jamaica) Revolution Food 66 The Hustle 69 Dirty/Pretty Things 71 Natalia Molebatsi (South Africa) Lessons to Learn 74 Truth 75 A Kind of Storm 76 Elizandra Souza (Brazil) My Only Woman’s Day 77 Regality 78 Preserving Heritage 79 Jumoke Verissimo (Nigeria) we all live here 80 Lockdown Journaling 82 Train Musings 83 Nadia Alexis (usa/Haiti) Cantaloupe 84 Watershed 86 Supposition 88 Prayer to Ezili Danto 89 Olumide Popoola (Nigeria/Germany) a fierce love 90 mercy killing 92 Show Me 94 LB Williams (usa) emotional autonomy 96 Little Black Boy 97 x Tjawangwa Dema (Botswana) loss and ampersand 98 Plough 100 Contrition 101 d’bi.young anitafrika (Jamaica) no more pussy gate-keeping 102 Warsan Shire (Somalia/uk) Backwards 109 Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre) 111 Questions for Miriam 113 Gabeba Baderoon (South Africa) Autobiography of a Reader 114 Nature 115 Greeting 116 Camila Trindade (Brazil) Heartburn (Azia) 117 Between the Lines (Entrelinhas) 119 My Body (Meu Corpo) 120 Jamila Osman (Somalia/usa) Winter Blues 121 Diaspora 122 Boats 123 The Lost Key Poem 124 Koleka Putuma (South Africa) europe asks if it can touch my hair 125 into the water 129 xi Julie Jokoto (Ghana) Another Slave 131 On Freedom’s Wings 133 Weapons of War 134 Michelle K Angwenyi (Kenya) In Your Neutral Room 136 Ngwatilo Mawiyoo (Kenya) Mermaid’s Lament 138 Home 139 In Vancouver, a White Woman Compliments My Hair 141 Batsirai E Chigama (Zimbabwe) To Mothers Learning to Breathe and Failing 142 The Precipice 143 Breath Slayer 144 Safia Elhillo (Sudan/usa) From girls that never die 145 rhapsody in pink 146 From girls that never die 147 Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (usa) For Despair (or: You Don’t Even Know How to Spell Black Excellence) 149 Poem for LB 154 vangile gantsho (South Africa) breathing under water 155 i have inside me my mother’s doubt 156 missing 157 xii Alexis Teyie (Kenya) A Need for Sighing 158 Those Corner-Dwellers, They 159 Momtaza Mehri (uk/Somalia) The Unthought Has a Comb 160 Wink Wink 162 Busisiwe Mahlangu (South Africa) Girl Is Prayer 163 Worship 164 Malika Booker (Grenada/Guyana/uk) Samson & His Mother 165 Ash Wednesday’s Hymn 170 Eve Daydreams 171 Ijeoma Umebinyuo (Nigeria) Stillborn 172 Bloody Tuesday 174 Women Forced out of Girls 176
Natalia Molebatsi is an internationally known South African writer, poet, and singer. In addition to being a performance poet and author, she experiments with jazz and hip hop. She has published Sardo Dance and edited We Are: A Poetry Anthology, and her work has been anthologised in a number of books. Natalia has performed poetry and facilitated creative writing workshops at high schools, universities and festivals in Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Zimbabwe, England, Italy, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Palestine, Germany and the USA, among other countries.
