on the shelf - Brief Article

Black Issues Book Review, March, 2001 by Samiya A. Bashir

Poetry saved my life. Putting together this year's poetry issue brought up old memories of sitting cross-legged on the floor of the school library, with a stack of poetry books in my lap as I discovered the greats of the Black Arts Movement, who helped give me a context for my own struggle.

This time of year is always special for us--first we start a new year, then we celebrate black history, women's history and poetry back-to-back. In this issue I've made sure to include some special sista celebration with our traditional poetry offerings.

The theme of jubilation, with which we began our third year, continues in our features, departments and reviews this spring. Leading our nonfiction section is Tenderheaded--the long awaited collection of "comb bending" hair stories that celebrate the spirit of our tresses.

bell hooks returns with Salvation, the second installment in her trilogy on love, and Iyanla Vanzant offers more healing affirmations with Until Today. Relationship experts Denene Millner and Nick Chiles return to the shelf with Money, Power, Respect, and help brothers and sisters deal with the three issues that most often threaten our relationships.

February may be over, but the time for community involvement is all year long. To help our readers get in where they fit in, we've chosen nonfiction selections that look both back to our past, and forward to our future. Tavis Smiley's collection of essays on Making Black America Better, and Jon Meacham's look into the Civil Rights Movement, Voices in Our Blood, help us understand where we've been and how best to get where we want to go.

Sandra Jackson-Opoku leads our fiction reviews with a steamy tale of a `playa' you'll hate to love, and the many women in his life. Notable releases like Carol Taylor's groundbreaking collection of erotica, Garfield Linton's esoteric Voodoomation, Penny Michelbury's latest mystery and Nichelle Tramble's "hip hop noir" novel, The Dying Ground, round off our fiction section. But not all of the stories unraveled in the season's new releases reach their full potential, and BIBR is committed to letting our readers inside of both the hits and the misses.

Our literature does far more than just entertain, it also records our stories, and those of our ancestors, which so rarely make it to conventional history books. In this vein, I am proud to bring readers the return of our occasional department, Cultural Crossings, delivering reports to our readers from across the African Diaspora.

This time we look at race consciousness in contemporary work by writers from the Dominican Republic. By sheer chance I read Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones (Soho Press, 1998) and Julia Alvarez' In the Time of the Butterflies (Dutton, 1995) almost shoulder to shoulder shortly after Farming was released. I got a history lesson, as told through fiction, from the perspectives on both sides of the conflict.

But we can not forget that this is the poetry issue. And amidst all of the wonderful work we chronicle between our covers, our central issue this spring is our celebratin of the resilience of African American poetry. Poets are the conscience of our culture who help us understand ourselves like no other genre.

The venerable talent of Yusef Komunyakaa leads our poetry reviews with Talking Dirty to the Gods. It was a pleasure reading this issue's poetry selections by both established wordsmiths, like Cornelius Eady, Wanda Coleman and James Emanuel, and up and coming literary lights, like Shariff Simmons and Affrilatian poet Frank X. Walker. Please check out (and support!) the work we've chosen to list from self-published poets doin' it for themselves. From audio poetry, to slam champions and poetry for children, don't miss the myriad ways to get your verse on this spring!

bibr recommends

The New African Poetry: An Anthology edited by Tanure Ojaide and Tijan M. Sallah Lynne Reinner Publishers, Inc., September 2000, $17.95, ISBN 0-894-10891-3 This collection of poetry from the motherland includes work from poets representing 22 countries across the continent. Looking particularly at work produced from the mid-70s to the present time, this collection is well researched and worth checking out.

Further to Fly: Black Women and the Politics of Empowerment by Sheila Radford-Hill University of Minnesota Press December 2000, $17.95, ISBN 0-816-63475-0 This admittedly academic volume addresses the obstacles to black women's political and cultural empowerment while also offering sound solutions. A great catalyst to start the debate and open dialogue this Women's History Month.

Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany by Ika Hugel-Marshall Continuum, November 2000, $24.95 ISBN 0-826-41294-7 This moving memoir tells the story of a black woman growing up in the often-hostile environment of 1950s Germany. It is a joy to watch her come of age with the help of deep friendships with black feminist writers, like Audre Lorde and Gloria Joseph, and work towards her own healing, while returning to her roots and reaching out to others.