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jessereadsthings's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, Rape, and Transphobia
nicdoeswords's review against another edition
Black Girl, Call Home is a fairly long poetry book, coming in on audio at just over 2 hours. Many of the poems are on the shorter side, though. We get a lot that are just one or two lines long. By and large, the shorter poems were my least favorite of the bunch. Some of that had a Rupi Kaur-esque cant to them, which might appeal to some readers—they were fairly simple in language, and generally just a pithy sentence in response to the call of the poem's title. The ones I liked more were generally longer.
Mans writes across a variety of topics, from home life to culture and media critique to historical events and more. As a result, this collection felt at times disjointed, bouncing between topics/settings/scopes and making me wonder if some of these ideas wouldn't be better served in books of their own. (There is a series of poems directed to/about prominent figures, including Kanye West, that really won me over and felt underserved in the middle of this long collection.)
When the poems worked, however, they really worked for me. My favorites tended to be related to the speaker's relationship with her mother, all tied together neatly at the end with our final poem, which, in audio, consisted only of a long dial tone. The tension of Mans' identity as a Black lesbian felt extremely poignant and well conveyed, and I appreciated the rawness of the compassion she has for the family members, particularly her mother, whose implied rejection comes from a place of love. It's a complicated homage to a specific cultural dynamic and I felt it was deftly conveyed.
While I did really like the audiobook, which is read by the author, I would recommend picking this book up in print and flipping through for poems that really speak to you as a reader.
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
Moderate: Homophobia
Forced sterilization is another content warning!fengxin's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Rape, Racism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Hate crime, and Gun violence
Moderate: Self harm
michaelion's review against another edition
4.25
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Child death, Gun violence, Grief, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, Homophobia, Death, Miscarriage, Racism, Police brutality, and Violence
miss_vonnegut's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death and Racism
maddie_rae_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I often felt uncomfortable while reading. Hard topics are addressed in reference to race, religion, rape, and more. I’m sure some of it is over my head, but the parts that resonated with me were beautiful and I hope more people read this book.
Just know it’s not fluffy and sweet, it’s deep and hard and shines a light on those uncomfortable (and often not talked about) corners of society.
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Racism, and Rape
kikiareyoureading's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault and Racism
yellow_star's review against another edition
4.0
There's a lot of sad in this, and it's not really a beautiful restful poetry book it's more of a mourning and rebellion book. The author discusses human rights violations against African Americans and queer people and women, writes poetic responses to celebrities like Kanye and Serena and Michelle Obama, and does some experimenting with form like a word search for women murdered as a racist hate crime. Even poems that should be happy like the love of a mother or romantic partner are uneasy and fearful of future pain and violence. The poems about abused slaves and rape are too real and painful to read. Overall a good thing to read, but choose a reading time when you have some emotional bandwidth free to process it.
There's also some sections on institutional abuse of the physically and mentally disabled. And some standing with missing or murdered indigenous women.
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
Moderate: Physical abuse, Death, Confinement, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Child death, Child abuse, Body horror, Blood, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Ableism
bookishlesbian's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
tlaynejones's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical trauma, Racism, and Slavery