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crystal_reading's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the poem and I appreciated learning a little bit about each of the women honored in the poem. I wanted to know more about them. There are some amazing women celebrated here and I wished that the biographical notes were a little more in depth, but that just means I'll be doing research in the future. Perhaps her purpose was to intrigue us enough to seek out more.
mrsjkamp's review against another edition
3.0
This poem was written for Oprah's Legends Event. Poem form is my least favorite venue for words because I'm a stickler for grammar. Rules can be broken all over the place in poems, and they were here for sure. But if you can look past that, the message is inspirational. This poem examines the lives of strong, successful African-American women. A little repetitive but not bad.
gmdudley4's review against another edition
4.0
Very quick, but delicious read. This is one that I will come back to time and time again.
humblej's review against another edition
2.0
I think I just expected more. The poem was nice but I didn't feel like the short biographies did any of the women honored justice. I also think it might have been better to detail the women's accomplishments before the poem.
sneakyfoxeh's review against another edition
4.0
This was a beautiful poem written in a very small book. It felt powerful and full of emotion while recounting strong women from times past.
mochagirl's review
5.0
This little book is priceless! Inspired by Oprah Winfrey's vision to celebrate the accomplishments of extraordinary African American women, Pearl Cleage answered the call by penning the poem that was key to Winfrey's 2005 Living Legends event. Cleage drew inspiration from the honoree's accomplishments and with a line-up that included greats like Katheryn Dunham, Cicely Tyson, Toni Morrison, Coretta Scott, King, Diana Ross, etc., it was easy to pick a muse and let her imagination flow.
The poem celebrates the spirit of sisterhood, courage, and resilience that these women possess. Pearl's signature themes of freedom, courage, wisdom, and strength (which are often echoed in her novels) are also evident in the prose. She marvels at how the honorees are a beautiful, mulit-talented group of women whose impact will be felt for generations; but more importantly she thanked and recognized each and every one of them (by name) as the truly amazing women they are. A brief biography of each of the twenty-five honorees is also provided in the back of the book.
The poem makes for a perfect gift to friends, sisters, mothers and is a "must have" for any woman's personal library. Bravo - this is a wonderful tribute!
The poem celebrates the spirit of sisterhood, courage, and resilience that these women possess. Pearl's signature themes of freedom, courage, wisdom, and strength (which are often echoed in her novels) are also evident in the prose. She marvels at how the honorees are a beautiful, mulit-talented group of women whose impact will be felt for generations; but more importantly she thanked and recognized each and every one of them (by name) as the truly amazing women they are. A brief biography of each of the twenty-five honorees is also provided in the back of the book.
The poem makes for a perfect gift to friends, sisters, mothers and is a "must have" for any woman's personal library. Bravo - this is a wonderful tribute!
introvertinterrupted's review
3.0
The emotion I got from reading this poem is hard to put into words. I felt as if Cleage took my feelings I keep written across my heart and mind about my iconic black sheroes and placed them into this poem. I recommend that EVERYBODY read this poem.
ginkgotree's review
This is the sort of thing I love about the Read Harder Challenge: it would never have occurred to me to listen to an audiobook of poetry, and although the library had very few (downloadable) options, it was nice to hear a poet read her work on my commute.
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