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mxpringle's review
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
My favorite aspect of this poetry collection where instead of a usual acknowledgements and about the author page, these were expressed as poems themselves. An amazing look at when it means to be Black and transgender and the way these identities interact with one another.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual content
shuly's review
5.0
I've never heard Kokumo at a reading but it's absolutely on my bucket list. Reacquainted with Life feels conversational--which only elevates the emotional intensity. She code-switches freely throughout the text and brings a breadth of experience that feels completely fresh. The thing I appreciate the most about Kokumo is her voice. Kokumo's confidence is resilient and bold but her self-assuredness never feels artificial; rather it feels rightfully earned.
Trauma is dehumanizing and the way that dominant white supremacist patriarchal culture interacts with it is either through negligence or gaslighting. On the other hand, recovery is exploited and model narratives are fetishized to silence those who refute the 'perfect victim' narrative. One of things this work brings to the forefront is a sense of humanity and tangible realness. She doesn't couch her language in politeness or respectability. She doesn't capitulate. She just brings realness, in all its messiness and grit and venom and heartache.
When did community become a form of currency?
They only love you as long as they can use you.
They only show up when the bodies hit the ground.
And eum then, it's just ta take pictures ova da corpse.
Shh!
Shh!
Shh!
U hea dat?
Iz da soun ah my bonez
whistlin from u suckin em dry fa sound bites.
Trauma is dehumanizing and the way that dominant white supremacist patriarchal culture interacts with it is either through negligence or gaslighting. On the other hand, recovery is exploited and model narratives are fetishized to silence those who refute the 'perfect victim' narrative. One of things this work brings to the forefront is a sense of humanity and tangible realness. She doesn't couch her language in politeness or respectability. She doesn't capitulate. She just brings realness, in all its messiness and grit and venom and heartache.
Ta every pseudo-intellectual, quasi-revolutionary, fake-deep ass muhfucka who thank a po', dark-skint, intersex, gnc, fat femme sayin bitch, is misogynistic cuz they clearly have no sense ah privilege matriculation, n ney systems analysis might as well came outta crack jack box.
Fuck, you bitch!
helmagnusdottir's review
5.0
This collection of poems steams forward with brutal beauty. I only wish that more people reading it could also hear KOKUMO's voice, because as alive as the words are on the page, in her voice, they are the sun.
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