Poetry

Vivid portraits of femininity, Shakespearean reinventions, and an intimate undressing of colonialism... Our poetry collection offers delight, shelter, and provocation.
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5 products
The First Collection
The First Collection
$14.95
Locating Strongwoman
Locating Strongwoman
$14.95
Where The Memory Was
Where The Memory Was
$14.95
On Reflection
On Reflection
$14.95
Jamakespeare
Jamakespeare
$14.95

The First Collection

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A lyrically bardic first collection from accomplished poet, Sarah Lipton-Sidibeh; Spanning the ages across Britain's colonial landscape, Sidibeh explores not only the body, but the body politic. With unflinching intimacy, Sidibeh illustrates the vagaries of ageing and loving in a body caught by endless possibilities and boundaries. Through the same critical eyes, she undresses Britain's colonial past and criminal present, laying bare society's ills and inequities; A comprehensive collection of humanity's collective struggles and radiant joys, The First Collection is an ambitious accomplishment.
The First Collection

Locating Strongwoman

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Locating Strongwoman is a portrait of unperformed femininity. Eschewing the stereotypical portrayal of the "Strong Woman" and the even more loaded "Strong Black Woman", these poems invite the reader to interrogate the protagonists and find in their stories a quiet strength.

"...This is a book filled with want, love and the lack thereof, with striking lines like, 'As if he wasn't a bed of nails your love/laid on' and 'The factory of my body works overtime'. It teeters between violence and the razor-blade threat thereof. Straddling the inside and outside worlds on the head of a 'bobbing sewing needle', Locating Strongwoman is visceral and raw, vulnerable and strong. It will leave you thinking and feeling long after you turn its last page".

Peter Kahn, author of Little Kings and co-editor of The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks

"Through Locating Strongwoman, Tolu Agbelusi hosts a black women's sleepover. Where we drink wine and share stories, about the many complexities of navigating our hearts, how we are our mother's daughters and how our mothers are complex women. Strongwoman... The chilling truth behind this collection is that to be woman is to be silent... or silenced.
Both in form and content, Locating Strongwoman is a trace of our mothers' silences and the inevitable release of our own voices. Tolu paints in a language that is familiar and comforting. And how wonderful it is to find yourself, over and over in poetry! As the woman who cannot be pinned into a box and doesn't want to be. To be seen."

Vangile Gantsho, author of Red Cotton and Undressing in Front of the Window; co-founder of Impepho Press

Locating Strongwoman

Where The Memory Was

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Split into three parts, Where The Memory Was, invites readers into a word full of blunt feeling and delicate poetics. Ranging in theme from inter-generational pain to reckless young love and battles with illness, these poems turn memory into a living aspect of our lives. These beautiful poems all cover the truths of a multi-layered identity and existing within structures, systems and histories that oppress. They range in theme from intergenerational trauma, love or lack of it and how our unique histories sometimes provide safety from the harshness of current reality.
Where The Memory Was

On Reflection

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On Reflection: Moments, Flight and Nothing New attempts to grapple with the complexities of our present moment. Personal and imagined stories appear as fragments of everyday scenes forming a narrative of self-discovery. Vignettes accompanied by photography explore life's contradictions, trauma, and the ways in which we navigate the fluidity of cities.

The poems move back and forth in time and across Europe, highlighting a range of experiences and perspectives of our modern society as a series of snapshots. In each, we catch a glimpse of ourselves, demonstrating how such moments and characters influence our journeys. Written from the consciousness of a British Ghanaian, the collection is a love letter to the lived and shared experience of those struggling and learning about the various intersections of their identity. Through the voice of Akos and other characters, Wiredu reaches to understand the significance of history, its effect on an evolving African diaspora in Europe, and finds hope in the present as she proposes an optimistic dialogue about the future.

On Reflection

Jamakespeare

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A reimagining of Shakespeare with a Caribbean twist!

Garrick takes Shakespeares's soliloquys and monologues and incorporates Jamaican Patois to make them relevant for a new age and audience. Inventive and engrossing, this collection is imperative and complimentary when teaching the canon.

Jamakespeare