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kelsilay15's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
nicithestone's review against another edition
5.0
Could I relate to it? No. But I thinks that‘s kind of the point. To explore people, emotions and situations outside of your daily life and help you get a bigger understanding of the world. Books like this should be required reading.
ixeliema's review against another edition
5.0
Every single person on the planet should read Alora's incredible words.
My more colorful friends will find these verses profoundly wise and familiar, and my paler complexioned compatriots, especially those who perhaps know only the history taught to them in high school classes, will find themselves walking away from this collection with a greater sense of understanding and compassion for the people they may have otherwise dismissed with words like "slavery ended 200 years ago, get over it."
For every white person who has ever asked me how they're privileged for being white, especially if they were disadvantaged in some other way, such as being poor...I offer you Black Tax and Black Tax Continued...as well as Cannibalism, Present Day, Tennessee. On the other side of the coin, for every young black girl who is wondering if this is it, if all there is to look to in life is pain and fighting, I offer you A Thousand Generations and Convocation. The entire collection is bittersweet, as I find myself loving Monette and Gentry as if they were my own mothers...and knowing how they suffered unbelieveably painful things just for a different skin tone makes me feel riotous rage. Learning the stories of these mothers that are denied to us by history on the whole was an incredibly emotional and extremely rewarding experience...and I can only hope that stories like theirs will never go untold again.
To all who push against the idea that white privilege isn't real, or that things are so easy these days, stop asking for handouts...I insist you take a minute to sit down, shut your mouth, and open your ears to the experiences of those not like yourself. You'll find rather quickly that centuries of generational racial trauma do not go quietly into that good night when echoes of what was done to you and your kin are everywhere, especially in the deep south. If your people were slaughtered like cattle, prevented from advancing socially, adademically, and emotionally, and otherwise 'othered' by any and all American Dreams, you'd be pissed, too.
Particular favorites by Young have to be Black Tax Continued, Athena and Ida, and A Question of Privilege, AP Geography, District 5, Nashville, TN, 2018. As Man and Wife, 1984 also holds a soft spot in my heart as the stepchild of a father who stepped up where the biological dad failed. Almost every poem in this collection brought pinpricks of raw emotion to the corners of my eye, and if this is what future generations will bring to the table, I really think that the kids are alright.
Catch me collecting all of Alora Young's poetry collections like Pokemon cards and yelling about how everyone should do the same.
My more colorful friends will find these verses profoundly wise and familiar, and my paler complexioned compatriots, especially those who perhaps know only the history taught to them in high school classes, will find themselves walking away from this collection with a greater sense of understanding and compassion for the people they may have otherwise dismissed with words like "slavery ended 200 years ago, get over it."
For every white person who has ever asked me how they're privileged for being white, especially if they were disadvantaged in some other way, such as being poor...I offer you Black Tax and Black Tax Continued...as well as Cannibalism, Present Day, Tennessee. On the other side of the coin, for every young black girl who is wondering if this is it, if all there is to look to in life is pain and fighting, I offer you A Thousand Generations and Convocation. The entire collection is bittersweet, as I find myself loving Monette and Gentry as if they were my own mothers...and knowing how they suffered unbelieveably painful things just for a different skin tone makes me feel riotous rage. Learning the stories of these mothers that are denied to us by history on the whole was an incredibly emotional and extremely rewarding experience...and I can only hope that stories like theirs will never go untold again.
To all who push against the idea that white privilege isn't real, or that things are so easy these days, stop asking for handouts...I insist you take a minute to sit down, shut your mouth, and open your ears to the experiences of those not like yourself. You'll find rather quickly that centuries of generational racial trauma do not go quietly into that good night when echoes of what was done to you and your kin are everywhere, especially in the deep south. If your people were slaughtered like cattle, prevented from advancing socially, adademically, and emotionally, and otherwise 'othered' by any and all American Dreams, you'd be pissed, too.
Particular favorites by Young have to be Black Tax Continued, Athena and Ida, and A Question of Privilege, AP Geography, District 5, Nashville, TN, 2018. As Man and Wife, 1984 also holds a soft spot in my heart as the stepchild of a father who stepped up where the biological dad failed. Almost every poem in this collection brought pinpricks of raw emotion to the corners of my eye, and if this is what future generations will bring to the table, I really think that the kids are alright.
Catch me collecting all of Alora Young's poetry collections like Pokemon cards and yelling about how everyone should do the same.
karnaconverse's review against another edition
family stories and coming of age
Young, 2021 Youth Poet Laureate for the Southern United States, explores the maternal side of her ancestry which she can name back to 1796. The 120 poems recognize each individual's transition from girlhood to womanhood—some who are dark- and some who are light-skinned— amid the societal constructs of the time period. In the final section, she tells her own story by acknowledging how she carries her ancestor's stories within her but also that "I am not just my mother's daughter." These words from one of the last poems in the book, "Athena and Ida," reveal that transformation.
I enjoyed this unique structure for tracing family history and appreciate the depth of genealogical research undertaken.
2023 Des Moines Library Challenge. Bonus Read: April Poetry Month
Young, 2021 Youth Poet Laureate for the Southern United States, explores the maternal side of her ancestry which she can name back to 1796. The 120 poems recognize each individual's transition from girlhood to womanhood—some who are dark- and some who are light-skinned— amid the societal constructs of the time period. In the final section, she tells her own story by acknowledging how she carries her ancestor's stories within her but also that "I am not just my mother's daughter." These words from one of the last poems in the book, "Athena and Ida," reveal that transformation.
As I write this, I have eight months and twenty-three days
before I'm old enough to vote in this country
I've got negative seventeen years three months and seven days
since your votes began affecting me.
They sat the meek shall inherit the earth,
but they inherit the laws and the wrongs as well.
The children are left when all is done
to rebuild the empires that fell.
We the people must contend that
there are laws we must amend
even when those in power try to bend and break us.
But when resolves start to shake we must resolve to stay
awake
because the things that tear us down are what awake us.
I enjoyed this unique structure for tracing family history and appreciate the depth of genealogical research undertaken.
2023 Des Moines Library Challenge. Bonus Read: April Poetry Month
randisworld's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Amazing! Wowza.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Racism, Violence, and Toxic relationship