babyfacedoldsoul's review
5.0
This collection of poetry was fantastic. My favourite of Ebony Stewart's work so far. Highly reccomend.
maria_hossain's review
4.0
Instead of telling you what I think about this book, I'll simply copy and paste some of the quotes and lines from this book that left lasting impressions on my mind.
I get so annoyed
when old men try to
holla at me.
Sir. Unless you plan
on making me a
beneficiary & dying
in the next few days
please leave me alone.
Because being a mother is not a luxury
And that is what it means to be a writer, too.
So... soooo incest and gang rape should be excused or kept secret
but a boy kissing another boy is where you draw vigilance?
Somebody said if your path is more difficult, it's because your calling is higher.
Sometimes,
I think I wrote this poem because I'll never forget.
Other times,
I think I wrote this because of how easily we forget.
blvckboyinparis's review
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
i love black people. i love black poets. i love us. i love how unapologetic we are. how unwavering we are in our quest to be heard, to be seen, to be. i love black women. i love us. i love how we love each other and how we call each other out. this book was all of melanated gold.
wtfiswrongwithella's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
"Check on your strong friends. I promise we're just pretending"
As an avid lover of spoken word poetry, I had been a fan of Miss Ebony's work from the first moment I heard one of her poems.
To me, Miss Ebony is an authentic guardian of the black essence; the kind of woman that bites before she kisses; an artist whose words speak louder than her voice.
This book was like that voice in your head that asks why you didn't decide to love yourself today. It told the story of someone who's experience was so different, yet so familiar to me as a writer, and as a fellow broken black person.
Through this book, she displays an admirable introspective style of expression. She showcased an anger that could be felt, just as much as it was read. She really called me out with names I didn't even know I had.
Overall, it was a great read (my numerous highlighted quotes can attest to this fact), and I will always come back to it as a reminder that I'm allowed to be myself in a universe that wants you to be anything but.
As an avid lover of spoken word poetry, I had been a fan of Miss Ebony's work from the first moment I heard one of her poems.
To me, Miss Ebony is an authentic guardian of the black essence; the kind of woman that bites before she kisses; an artist whose words speak louder than her voice.
This book was like that voice in your head that asks why you didn't decide to love yourself today. It told the story of someone who's experience was so different, yet so familiar to me as a writer, and as a fellow broken black person.
Through this book, she displays an admirable introspective style of expression. She showcased an anger that could be felt, just as much as it was read. She really called me out with names I didn't even know I had.
Overall, it was a great read (my numerous highlighted quotes can attest to this fact), and I will always come back to it as a reminder that I'm allowed to be myself in a universe that wants you to be anything but.
tayler_liberationislit's review
4.0
BloodFresh is a mix of personal and political, as if the two aren’t interchangeable. There is revolution and evolution in these poems. We see Stewart grapple with concepts like racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all their intersections, from both the point of view of the oppressed and ally.
I was not expecting the visual style of the poems; many of them resemble a piece of prose. However, the poems are fun, playing with sentence structure, capitalization, and word spelling. Many of the poems are written conversationally. I have seen Stewart perform her poems several times, so I read them in my head as if I were imagining them being spoken aloud. There was that edge to them to make them lyrical.
My favorite poem is Tantrums or How to be a Poet in Six Steps. It is a gentle dance between writing and mental health. For me, it whispered subtle truths for my own life, sending reverberations through me. The best poetry always does that for me. All her poems give me good vibes.
I read BloodFresh before I read Stewart’s other book Home.Girl.Hood. Part of me wishes I read them in order to see the growth from one collection to the other. Even though I didn’t read them in order, BloodFresh got me excited to read her other collection. You should read this book if you are looking to be moved by powerful poems that speak on mental health, vulnerability, and liberation.
I was not expecting the visual style of the poems; many of them resemble a piece of prose. However, the poems are fun, playing with sentence structure, capitalization, and word spelling. Many of the poems are written conversationally. I have seen Stewart perform her poems several times, so I read them in my head as if I were imagining them being spoken aloud. There was that edge to them to make them lyrical.
My favorite poem is Tantrums or How to be a Poet in Six Steps. It is a gentle dance between writing and mental health. For me, it whispered subtle truths for my own life, sending reverberations through me. The best poetry always does that for me. All her poems give me good vibes.
I read BloodFresh before I read Stewart’s other book Home.Girl.Hood. Part of me wishes I read them in order to see the growth from one collection to the other. Even though I didn’t read them in order, BloodFresh got me excited to read her other collection. You should read this book if you are looking to be moved by powerful poems that speak on mental health, vulnerability, and liberation.
ceci_cc's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I am just not a big fan of poetry but there were some that I liked a lot and could feel her words and the power behind them.
heather_e_lizabeth's review
3.0
Unfortunately I don't think this worked for me. I really liked some of the poems and stories in here, however I would say if your like me and not musically or rhythmically talented you may have a tough time. The way a lot of this was written it felt to me like it should be spoken word, however my brain does not have the capability to do that itself. If the author was to release an audiobook in the future I would however 100% give this another go.
There were multiple pieces I really loved and I could feel the intention behind a lot of the work in here even if my brain wasn't completely working with it.
Everything mentioned in the description came across in the work however there were also a lot of religious aspects in here and that I was not expecting from the description and it did put me off a little.
Overall a good book but I feel it would benefit from an audiobook version.
Thanks to @netgalley , the publishers @buttonpoetry and the author @gullyprincess for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
There were multiple pieces I really loved and I could feel the intention behind a lot of the work in here even if my brain wasn't completely working with it.
Everything mentioned in the description came across in the work however there were also a lot of religious aspects in here and that I was not expecting from the description and it did put me off a little.
Overall a good book but I feel it would benefit from an audiobook version.
Thanks to @netgalley , the publishers @buttonpoetry and the author @gullyprincess for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
amberherbert's review
3.0
This collection wasn't as strong as I was hoping. There were poems I enjoyed and others that fell short, but perhaps that has more to do with the fact I'm not the target audience. Nevertheless, I would still pick up the next collection Ebony Stewart publishes.