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emergencily's review
5.0
- a stunning, massive collection of poetry in more shapes and forms than you could imagine (including mixed media poems, literary prose, excerpts from books like "stone butch blues," and a transcript of a sylvia rivera speech) by trans artists. there is so much raw emotion, bodily sensation, eroticism and style crammed into this collection that there will be something here for any reader
- bulk of the poetry is highly experimental and postmodern. presented in such a large quantity together, it was sometimes hard to get through one after the other (but im also a less experienced poetry reader). overall, you should take reading this slowly and in small sessions over time so you can really savour each piece (imo)
- my one complaint: ofc, it must have been difficult to find a way to organize such an massive collection of pieces and authors (70+ authors?!), so i understand why they chose to go for alphabetical order. but i do prefer when anthologies have more of a rhyme & reason to the order and presentation of pieces
""Poetry isn’t revolutionary practice; poetry provides a way to inhabit revolutionary practice, to ground ourselves in our relations to ourselves and each other, to think about an unevenly miserable world and to spit in its face. We believe that poetry can do things that theory can’t, that poetry leaps into what theory tends towards. We think that poetry conjoins and extends the interventions that trans people make into our lives and bodily presence in the world, which always have an aesthetic dimension. We assert that poetry should be an activity by and for everybody."
softanimal's review
4.75
There was so much work I loved in this collection and I'm so grateful it exists. I feel a lot of gratitude for Andrea Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel for the work they did to put this together. Like nearly every anthology though some pieces were misses for me. Nothing that was included sullied the other work, it just didn't make it to five stars for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Colonisation
There a lot of content warnings for this but all of the triggering content is addressed with grace and intention. Take care of yourself but also know that these poets skillfully bring their personal pain and joy into their words.greenleafbooks's review
3.0
I liked a lot of the poems in here, but because this is anthology there were also a lot of “just ok” poems unfortunately. I did enjoy hearing from a lot of trans writers though so overall, glad that I read it.
internetghoul's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
elliel_nook's review against another edition
I'm not mentally well enough to finish this book rn. It's just too emotionally challenging. I just need some light and fluffy things in life rn. Especially if it's something nearly 500pgs
froggin_around_'s review
5.0
this is amazing. and powerful. and beautiful. and even informative. this is what I want poetry to make me feel like
sperks's review
4.0
Hey, its a poetry collection. Not all of them are going to be a vibe, but a lot of them were in this one. And the ones that weren't will probably be a vibe for someone else.