A review by heykellyjensen
The Unboxing of a Black Girl by Angela Shanté

A knockout, gut punch of a poetry collection. The book is Shante's memoir and it focuses on not only her coming of age, but how she came to understand that she needs to break out of the boxes she's been presented in order to thrive. Those boxes, she describes, are cultural and historical, are part of trauma and part of education, but no one–especially people who live at the intersections of varying identities–needs to choose to keep those boxes on.