rayyan3's review against another edition
5.0
I occasionally go to a local poetry slam/open mic type of thing at a lounge nearby on Wednesdays, and on one of the random nights I decided to attend, Safia Elhillo was the featured poet. I hadn't heard of her before, hadn't researched her prior to attending, and hadn't even checked who would be performing. After the open mic portion, she came up and read a collection of selected works.
As soon as she said a word in Arabic I teared up because I. am. so. here. for WoC especially MUSLIM WoC honing their craft and speaking up.
As she went on I found my self straight up crying because her work is beautiful and quirky and thought-provoking and so so important all at the same time. I immediately went home and ordered The January Children on Amazon and followed her on all her social media. I've read this book several times, and I have it sitting on my coffee table to go back to certain pieces often and to show random people who come to my apartment bits of her work (including my dad who does not care for poetry at all and is in no way sentimental; and he loved it).
As soon as she said a word in Arabic I teared up because I. am. so. here. for WoC especially MUSLIM WoC honing their craft and speaking up.
As she went on I found my self straight up crying because her work is beautiful and quirky and thought-provoking and so so important all at the same time. I immediately went home and ordered The January Children on Amazon and followed her on all her social media. I've read this book several times, and I have it sitting on my coffee table to go back to certain pieces often and to show random people who come to my apartment bits of her work (including my dad who does not care for poetry at all and is in no way sentimental; and he loved it).
scrow1022's review against another edition
5.0
Mmm, the rhythms, the stories, the voices, the questions. I keep opening it up and getting lost in it again.
fermented's review against another edition
5.0
Everything from the details
to the emotional content
"once in geneva i was one of three african girls at school two of which were said to stink i was never told which two"
-from "asmarani does psychogeography"
to the style
are phenomenal.
Elhilla even includes a glossary and a set of notes to translate the Arabic phrases scattered throughout. You'll want to read them, because her wordplay is incredible.
I mean, seriously, even her titles ("a brief history of silence," about repression in the Sudan; "talking with an accent about home," "self-portrait with dirty hair") are better than most poetry.
It's hard to put this down once you start reading. This is a collection of poetry that would leave anyone breathless.
I received this electronic readers' advanced copy through Netgalley via University of Nebraska Press.
"& in the months since my last visit _ i feel american
syrup settle back to coat my r's __ & in new york
i am ambiguous browngirl _ [but your english
is so good you can barely hear the accent]"
-from "republic of the sudan
ministry of interior
passport & immigration general directorate
alien from sudanese origin passcard")
to the emotional content
"once in geneva i was one of three african girls at school two of which were said to stink i was never told which two"
-from "asmarani does psychogeography"
to the style
"our mouths open & a song falls out _ thick
with a saxophone's syrup _ & all our dead
in the ground make our land ours _ & all
our missing fathers make us everything's child"
-from "self-portrait with yellow dress"
are phenomenal.
Elhilla even includes a glossary and a set of notes to translate the Arabic phrases scattered throughout. You'll want to read them, because her wordplay is incredible.
I mean, seriously, even her titles ("a brief history of silence," about repression in the Sudan; "talking with an accent about home," "self-portrait with dirty hair") are better than most poetry.
It's hard to put this down once you start reading. This is a collection of poetry that would leave anyone breathless.
I received this electronic readers' advanced copy through Netgalley via University of Nebraska Press.
ohlhauc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
robotswithpersonality's review against another edition
Poet's experience of alienation, violence, colonialism, colourism, racism, in Sudan (Egypt?) and the US.
The inclusion of Arabic within the poems is eloquent in conveying how unlikely it is that I can fully grasp all the layers of meaning present, (though there is a glossary and notes in the back that may assist) any more than I can share all the poet has experienced. Still, I owed it to her work to try.
I think formatting is both artistic choice and a calculated method of slowing reading down to reflect further, but I think it messed with my reading comprehension.
Just a humbling reminder that I'm still a novice at understanding poetry.
The inclusion of Arabic within the poems is eloquent in conveying how unlikely it is that I can fully grasp all the layers of meaning present, (though there is a glossary and notes in the back that may assist) any more than I can share all the poet has experienced. Still, I owed it to her work to try.
I think formatting is both artistic choice and a calculated method of slowing reading down to reflect further, but I think it messed with my reading comprehension.
Just a humbling reminder that I'm still a novice at understanding poetry.
thegayngelgabriel's review against another edition
4.0
Intimate and lush and very very precise. I love work about people becoming obsessed with an (totally unrelated to them personally) artist/writer as a mode of working through something--Helen MacDonald with T.H. White, Alison Bechdel with Donald Winnicott (and Virginia Woolf), Safia Elhillo with Ol' Dirty Bastard and now Abdelhalim Hafez.
vivakresh's review against another edition
5.0
This book absolutely SHOOK ME by the GUTS. And it also played around with my brain strings. Very very powerful, poems about language, history, personal and familial, national and international. One of the best books of poems I've read, ever.