A vibrant, sentimental journey for fans of Christian verse.
Nichols’ debut collection of poetry, prose, and artwork takes scenic back roads as it celebrates God and family.
The author’s compilation is a tribute to her family in the American South; it begins by comparing her life to a journey: “Departure began at birth on March 15, 1948 on Jack Craig’s Place in a little shack, surrounded by a cotton field, located across the pass at the end of a little dusty road.” Divided into nine sections, with themes such as “Seasons and Change” and “Love Notes,” Nichols’ expressive poetry—some free verse and some rhyming—is deeply respectful of family. For example, the narrator in “Nubian Knots” shows her love for her African ancestors in her hairstyle: “I wear the Nubian Knots as an / Expression of my kindred spirit / To the Mother Land / Sojourned via my heritage.” The poet’s simple, heartfelt verse highlights strong characters; for example, in “Mama,” a midwife helps a loving mother endure childbirth. However, Jesus plays the most prominent role in these poems. “There Is Power in the Blood” effectively echoes the words and rhythm of an old gospel song: “With His blood, He washed away every sin.” Later, readers are invited to accept Christ as their savior in “A Chance of a Life Time,” which concludes with Bible verses and enthusiastic, sermonlike prose. Much of Nichols’ writing style is informal and familiar—“This Day I’ll Marry My Best Friend” could be a wedding toast—and it will resonate with readers from close-knit families. The book also includes nearly 100 color reproductions of the author’s eye-catching art. The memorable images tell many stories on their own, displaying a wide range of styles—from the energetic lines of ink and watercolor on paper in “Everybody Jammin” to the bold colors of acrylic on canvas in “Feminine Side” to the ethereal oil paint of “Trees II.” The acrylic painting “Not By Bread Alone” portrays the heavy emotions accompanying a diagnosis of breast cancer with deep orange hues.
A vibrant, sentimental journey for fans of Christian verse.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-973602-36-1
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.
A potent series of “notes” paints a multidimensional picture of Blackness in America.
Throughout the book, which mixes memoir, history, literary theory, and art, Sharpe—the chair of Black studies at York University in Toronto and author of the acclaimed book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being—writes about everything from her family history to the everyday trauma of American racism. Although most of the notes feature the author’s original writing, she also includes materials like photographs, copies of letters she received, responses to a Twitter-based crowdsourcing request, and definitions of terms collected from colleagues and friends (“preliminary entries toward a dictionary of untranslatable blackness”). These diverse pieces coalesce into a multifaceted examination of the ways in which the White gaze distorts Blackness and perpetuates racist violence. Sharpe’s critique is not limited to White individuals, however. She includes, for example, a disappointing encounter with a fellow Black female scholar as well as critical analysis of Barack Obama’s choice to sing “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in a hate crime at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. With distinct lyricism and a firm but tender tone, Sharpe executes every element of this book flawlessly. Most impressive is the collagelike structure, which seamlessly moves among an extraordinary variety of forms and topics. For example, a photograph of the author’s mother in a Halloween costume transitions easily into an introduction to Roland Barthes’ work Camera Lucida, which then connects just as smoothly to a memory of watching a White visitor struggle with the reality presented by the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Something about this encounter, something about seeing her struggle…feels appropriate to the weight of this history,” writes the author. It is a testament to Sharpe’s artistry that this incredibly complex text flows so naturally.
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780374604486
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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