4 Poetry books that banged in 2019
2019 has really given me the opportunity to read a lot of poetry. Poetry throughout my school-life left me feeling disengaged and made me mentally lock poetry in a box that read ‘Do not open.’ I’m glad I unlocked the box this year. Out of the poems I read some took me down memory lane, and a select few that were new to me screamed out fire in the booth leaving their mark. These 4 books that I am co-signing all comfortably bring their own seats to the table and the results are melanated magic.
By Sophia Thakur
Book: Somebody Give This Heart A Pen
Publisher: Walkers Books
Release Date: October 2019
I’ve been following British-Gambian poet Sophia Thakur, on Instagram for a while now after coming across her spoken performances online and I was impatiently awaiting this collection.
Newsflash, this collection does not disappoint. To describe Sophia Thakur’s collection in one sentence, combining the soulful vibe of singer Jorja Smith and poet r.h Sin’s ability to mind read and you have Sophia Thakur's intimate and soulful collection. Insert Lauryn Hill - Killing Me Softly.
“Time away from belonging to an “us”
allowed my preferences to become personal again
and really I never liked your sharp tongue
nor the nature of your crew
those were the things I once contested
and then just became accustomed to.
”
The collection is broken down into 4 parts which make the process Grow, Wait, Break and Grow Again and provides a real intimate journey through universal topics such as love, loss, faith and self discovery. Most importantly, the collection has the power to make you want to look into yourself and evaluate where you’re currently. Risky Nostalgia was the ultimate stand out poem for me, I connected with it so deeply and it had me looking sideways whilst reading the poem out in public because it made me feel really vulnerable. I remember thinking that I was being watched because the poem seemed way too personal to me.
Bangalanging poems:
Risky Nostalgia, Excerpt from a Letter to My Little Black Girl and When to Write.
“Run your fingers through your Afro, a tree that this whole culture breathes from.”
By Morgan Parker
Book: Magical Negro
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Release Date: February 2019
Magical Negro is Morgan Parker’s second book and yo we have to protect Morgan Parker at all costs! This poetry collection is real raw leaving you with WOW spilling out of your mouth. I love how versatile Morgan’s poetry is. It definitely makes you feel like you’re on a rollercoaster. You could be reading a confrontational poem, followed immediately by a jokey poem that plays on stereotypes, and then be thrown deep into a poem about the politics in America. This work of art is dipped in vulnerability and explores everyday blackness, and at the very core both the pain and magic of being a Black woman in the US.
“Lead us not into white neighbourhoods,
Deliver us from microaggressions.
Blessed are those who mourn, we who
are a blood built on a hill of embers
We no mail-order hipster black wife.”
Magical Negro #80: Brooklyn really caught my eye with its twist on a popular Christian prayer ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, it had me laughing out way too loud when I connected the dots. The collection is really powerful and I love how structured the collection is, with it being split into 3 sections. The poem titles and the section titles don’t come to play! - Let Us Now praise Famous Magical Negroes, Field Negro Field Notes and Popular Negro Punchlines.
Bangalanging poems:
Magical Negro #3: The Strong Black Woman, Let’s Get Some Better Angels at This Party, If You Are Over Staying Woke.
“Be honest when you’re up to it. Otherwise
drink water
lie to yourself
turn off the news
skip the funerals”
By Jay Bernard
Book: Surge
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Release Date: June 2019
In 2016 just after the Brexit vote, Jay was invited to become a writer at the George Padmore Institute, a centre that focuses on black radical history in Britain. They had a key interest in the New Cross Fire and the poetry collection Surge was born. The collection whilst drawing on some emotion provoking incidents finds a way to insert flavour and Jamaican patois.
“Mudda she ah cry an she nah have no shoes on
Man dem ah look but to help dem refuse
Fren dem shock by di scale ah di loss
”
There is a large focus on the 1981 New Cross Fire which took the lives of 13 young people, and draws similarities to the 2017 Grenfell tower fire. Even though over 30 years apart, the narrative surrounding the incidents mirror each other and the collection doesn’t shy away from highlighting how frightening and infuriating it is that incidents have lacked accountability!
Bangalanging poems:
+, Proof and Blank.
“It is said that several thousand people marched in the rain from -
And now what is there, ___? What do we have to show for -”
Robert M.Drake, rh.Sin
Book: Empty Bottles Full of Stories
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Release Date: March 2019
Chances are before you know who the poets are Robert M.Drake and r.h.Sin are you’ve read their poems and have screenshots of their words on your phone. I’ve definitely got more than I can count. Taking advantage of the social media medium both men with their relateable and empowering poetry have become females real life cheerleaders, therapists, healers and are a refreshing reminder that not “all men are trash.”
“I think
you care
too much
but you pretend
as if
nothing bothers you.
I think
you want people
to miss you
but only
the right ones.”
Teaming up the two authors have provided some heart and thought provoking poetry, with Robert M.Drake focusing on the Curse, with some political poems and r.h Sin dishing out the sort of poems that ‘G check’ you and pierce through layers screaming into your heart to get you away from any unhealthy relationships. Effectively helping to reignite the good old 90s RnB with some soulful poetry.
Bangalanging poems:
The first shot, Too late, Relateable through sex.
“You’re not weak. Why? Well because you’re strong enough to love even when that love isn’t returned.”
Sophia Thakur and Morgan Parker’s books were gifted*