for the love of black girls: poems by Tatiana M.R. Johnson by Tatiana Johnson,Vashti Harrison,Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Tatiana M.R. Johnson’s first number of poems is a love letter to black women in every single place. “for the affection of black women” makes noticeable the ache and magic that's turning out to be up a black woman in the US via recalling her personal coming-of-age tale and chanting that black ladies are current, lovely and something yet invisible.

Reviews:

“I comprehend i'm alive and demanding sufficient to dwell without end simply because Tatiana’s poems recommend i'm so. Her paintings exists on a airplane that's innately non secular, black and feminine. She pours into me a sweetness that's extraordinary; one who breaks open components of me and make allowance different components to suppose entire. every one line holiday and selection in diction sparks a jolt that reverberates lengthy after I’ve left Johnson’s paintings. Her phrases ring a bell in me of cool morning dew on grass; certainly attractive, deeply difficult, and designed in simple terms via god. Enjoy.”
-Porsha Olayiwola, 2014 person global Poetry Slam Champion and 2015 nationwide Poetry Slam Champion, Fog laptop Press

“Tatiana M.R. Johnson’s poetry reclaims the language of religion, so usually melded into anything reductive opposed to the physique. Johnson says we supply start to ourselves, back. back and all through this assortment she does that repeatedly. She ends at the poem “Psalm for black women” the place she says breathe during this fact of your self and abruptly, someplace, there are bells ringing. Do you listen them? She did that. Her kinds construct upon and speak to to one another whereas nonetheless leaving room for shock. there's a femme energy emphasised right here, the implication of the christian Madonna after which the demonstrate of the poet’s self as her personal Madonna. Her personal Black femme magic creating a new church. This booklet is a realm the place the affection of the self is the one prayer, and sisterhood is the holiest spirit. i'm grateful for the Black ladies in my existence, how they struggle for everybody whereas the area pushes opposed to them. i'm grateful for the affection Black women provide. i'm grateful for Tatiana M.R. Johnson, whose voice is a hymn, hands open. I by no means are looking to cease listening.”
- Jess Rizkallah, writer of "the magic my physique becomes"

“There is an influence in naming, in environment the list immediately, in asserting this can be and was once no longer what occurred to you; that eventually, you're not a made of situation, now not an inherited background, yet really a "forever haunting," an "ever-evolving-black girl," "all the sweetness in yourself." Tatiana Johnson's "for the affection of black ladies" units the checklist immediately. those are poems to disencumber, to extol, to acknowledge the great thing about black women and of black girlhood, ever shinning, ever attractive, ever actual. Tatiana Johnson writes many times into the moments the place the realm sought to render black girlhood an inadequacy, and unearths good looks inside of herself. this can be a needs to read.”
- Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah, editor, pizza pi press