A review by kleonard
Plantains and Our Becoming: Poems by Melania Luisa Marte

4.0

A compelling, angry, and insistent collection of poems and prose poems that circle around the author's Dominical Republic, Afro-Latina identity, her family and family history, and her desire to have what she wants, from power and presence to material wealth. Celebrating things and people as diverse as the NY Public Library and Cardi B, there's a focus on ownership and the trappings of financial success that I find unusual--many of the poetry of immigrants and those in diasporas more often decry capitalism and its effects on their communities. But Marte is forthright about her wants, and her citing of popular culture's flamboyances situates the collection in a particular point in time and place. There are a number of poems in shapes that didn't really need the non-standard typesetting to be effective, and a few pieces that feel like warm-ups for other poems in the collection.