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A review by grayjay
NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field by Billy-Ray Belcourt
5.0
Like in his last book, Belcourt's poems tell a story of the indigenous body, the pain and history it carries, and describes ways of living and loving from within such a body, this new book of poems opens up to a larger lens.
It turns it's attention more directly to the history of the indigenous oppression and the systems within Canada that caused it. He also talks about the difficulty in living in and loving a world that you simultaneously hate and is trying to kill you.
His verse can be both very pop and very academic. He references critical theorists, physiologists, musicians, and poets.
Personally, it made me laugh out loud, it broke my heart. There were moments I was rightly left out of as a white settler, but there were also moments I felt I could connect to either as a gay person or just as a human.
It turns it's attention more directly to the history of the indigenous oppression and the systems within Canada that caused it. He also talks about the difficulty in living in and loving a world that you simultaneously hate and is trying to kill you.
His verse can be both very pop and very academic. He references critical theorists, physiologists, musicians, and poets.
Personally, it made me laugh out loud, it broke my heart. There were moments I was rightly left out of as a white settler, but there were also moments I felt I could connect to either as a gay person or just as a human.