Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

More Fiya: A New Collection of Black British Poetry by Kayo Chingonyi

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samdalefox's review

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3.25

So far, this is my favourite poetry book I've read this year. It is an anthology containing poems from Black British poets and covers an astonishing range of styles and topics encapsulating the Black diaspora experience across Britain, many African countries, and several West Indies countries . Some I could relate to, some were enlightening and thoughtful, some were emotional, and of course some I didn't understand (being someone who stuggles with poetry generally).

I found it particularly interesting to see how the colour black is used differently in poetry written by Black poets. I've listed a couple of my favourite quotes from the introduction. I've then listed a full list of poets featured in the anthology and my favourite poem of theirs. There were only a handful I didn't really like any of their works included in this anthology. My favourite poets (whose poems published here all stood out to me in some way) are highlgihted with a star*.


"We live in a cultural landscape that regards visibility alone as a sign of change. If more Black poets are getting published, recieving institutional largesse, editing, performing and otherwise taking up space, this must mean the work is almost done. I contend that the work of these landmark volumes set out is merely in its infancy. The radicalism in these volumes was to show black life as normal rather than a deviation from the norm of whiteness."

"The ambition of the poems collected in these pages, are not the product of some overnight sensation [in response to the BLM movement] . They are the product of community, ingenuity, and persistence in the overwhelming pressures to the contrary".

  • Jason Allen-Paisant - birdsong
  • Raymond Antrobus - for cousin John 
  • Dean Atta - two black boys in paradise
  • Janette Ayachi - quick fire, slow burning 
  • Dzifa Benson - Ms hipson the tall Dutch woman, dreams of dancing with a man tall enough to make her feel delicate (excerpt from: Fair: natural born, man made, and fake.)
  • Malika Booker - points of this reckoning 
  • Eric Ngalle Charles - Mboa Mi: my country and a Song for freedom
  • India Ellams - the vanishing 
  • Samatar Elmi - Etymologies, "reduced to shades of echoes  between the wings of moths" 
  • Khadijah Ibrahiim - Herman avenue hand cart woman 
  • Keith Jarrett - nor the arrow that flies in the day
  • Anthony Joseph - "we has names that we moved through space like blades". Wire, god of Wallerfield.
  • Safia Kamaria Kinshasa - slow whine
  • Vanessa Kisuule - Auntihood
  • Rachel Long - neither tbh, probably your daddy ain't rich 
  • Adam Lowe - aftermath
  • Nick Makoha  - "those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it". None really, probably The long duration of a split second. 
  • Karen McCarthy Woolf - from, unsafe
  • Momtaza Mehri - a comparative history of fire
  • Bridget Minamore - golden shovel for my people
  • Selina Nwulu - Mango tree, and When the party is over
  • Gboyega Odubanjo - arrangements
  • Louisa Adjoa Parker - you're
  • Roger Robinson - gold , and Aba Shanti Soundsystem
  • Denise Saul - the room between us 
  • Kim Squirrel* - Walking home from school and Healing
  • Warsaw Shire - midnight in the foreign food isle 
  • Rommi Smith - none really, only one pallette  for a portrait of little Richard.
  • Yomi Sode* - on fatherhood: proximity to death, all of them! 
  • Degna Stone* - another tongue and, how to unpick the lies 
  • Keisha Thompson* - the concrete square off tib street in may, number 2020 (amazing)
  • Kandace Siobhan Walker - "what could be worse than social rejection? Dare you to ask the moon is she knows she's just a reflection." Eye contact
  • Warda Yassin - Treetop Hotel
  • Belinda Zhawi - Tchaikovsky's January, "this body is the only thing I own" 

 
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