A poetry collection that strikes a perfect chord between lyricism and raw storytelling.
A poet blends memoir and social commentary on race in America in this debut collection.
Edmond introduces this collection of poetry with a brief preface that contextualizes the work: A self-described “boy who could not read until age 15,” the author began writing lyrical prose as a teenager in the 1990s after some initial experimentation with writing rhymes with stanzas. The rest of the book focuses on Edmond’s poetry, written over the course of the last two decades. As an autobiographical collection, the work charts the author’s personal journey into adulthood and love of family, who are referenced throughout in snapshot photographs. “A man without his freedom,” he writes in “FAMILY,” “He is still liberated / If he has a family.” Many of the deeply personal poems explore the author’s religious faith (“Poetically Created By God”) and love life (“Your Beauty is Angelic”). The sensuous piece “Your Nectar is Tasteful” muses on the honeyed taste of a lover’s kiss as the speaker declares, “No vision can hold you / A dream that cannot be attained.” Many of his first poems, written in his early 20s, are offered “unblemished by edits” to allow readers to follow the evolution of Edmond’s technical prowess. A key figure in the author’s transformation from a “lost boy to a found man” was a Black man named Judge who “sat [him] down at a table on a penitentiary yard every Saturday for two years” and introduced him to Pan-African thinkers like Chancellor Williams and Na’im Akbar. Afrocentrism, accordingly, is a central theme in many of the book’s pieces: “WHAT IS AFRIKA TO ME?” highlights the “Dazzling and sophisticated” continent “Where people have found their birth.” Another poem, “MAROONS,” celebrates Black icons from Alicia Keys to Billie Holiday while indicting a political system that is “trying to politically castrate” Black voices. Poignant, intimate, and politically sophisticated, this is a powerful debut collection from a poet decades in the making.
A poetry collection that strikes a perfect chord between lyricism and raw storytelling.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781665750226
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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