Plantains and Our Becoming

Name: Plantains and Our Becoming
Price: 35 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780593471340

Poems

Melania Luisa Marte

$35

Paperback

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English

Tiny Reparations Books
26 September 2023

Poetry

A powerful poetry collection in the vein of BLACK GIRL CALL HOME and IF THEY COME FOR US, about identity, culture, home and belonging.

A rousing, beautifully observed, and tender-hearted debut poetry collection about identity, culture, home, and belonging-for fans of Jasmine Mans and Fatimah Asghar

""We, children of platanos, always gotta learn to play in everyone else's backyard and somehow feel at home.""

Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLAINTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary. But the dictionary is far from a record of the truth. What does it mean, then, to tend to your own words and your own record-to build upon the legacies of your ancestors?

In this imaginative, blistering poetry collection, Marte looks at the identities and histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black diasporic experience. Through the exploration of themes like self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational trauma, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood.

Moving from New York to Texas to the Dominican Republic and to Haiti, this collection looks at the legacies of colonialism and racism but never shies away from highlighting the beauty-and joy-that comes from celebrating who you are and where you come from. PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is ""a full-throated war cry; both a request for anointment and the responding bendici n"" (Elizabeth Acevedo).

By: Melania Luisa Marte
Imprint: Tiny Reparations Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 131mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 169g
ISBN: 9780593471340
ISBN 10: 0593471342
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 26 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Melania Luisa Marte is a writer, poet, and musician from New York living between the Dominican Republic and Texas. Her viral poem ""Afro-Latina"" was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over nine million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain't I Latina, AfroPunk, The Root, Teen Vogue, Telemundo, Remezcla, PopSugar, and elsewhere.

Reviews for Plantains and Our Becoming: Poems

One of We All Grow Latina's 20 Books From Latine Authors to Keep an Eye Out for in 2023 This collection is a full-throated war cry; both a request for anointment and the responding bendicion. Marte writes like she's got daggers between her teeth: yes, there is sharpness in every line, but her words remind us blades also cauterize, heal. Even these ancestral wounds. -Elizabeth Acevedo, the National Book Award winning author of The Poet X There is no voice like Melania Luisa Marte's right now. I hesitate to say words like 'necessary' and 'groundbreaking' because it should simply be a given that Marte's work is in people's hands, headphones, bookshelves, and syllabi. Her thrilling collection Plantains and Our Becoming is a portrait of Black girlhood, an ode to daughters of the diaspora, and a lesson on an erased Dominican history. Marte's prose is all at once prayer and captivating lecture; a song that will stay ringing in your ears and refuse to leave. I can't shout about it enough. -Melissa Lozada-Oliva, author of Dreaming of You The poems in this collection are an experience. One cannot just read these poems without standing right next to the speaker right from the beginning as they are making platanos. These poems demand the reimagining of justice for Black women. Plantains and Our Becoming examines a lineage of reclamation and resistance in the face of racial injustice with freedom and joy at the helm. -Elisabet Velazquez, author of When We Make It