Body Not My Own

Book excerpt: Body Not My Own is a poetic journey into the minds and hearts of Africans who endured and overcame slavery in the United States. With a truly astonishing imagination and a capacity for empathy that reaches back three centuries, the poet evokes the worldview, daily survival strategies, and rituals that Africans conceived in order to endure and transcend a system that ravaged their human identity, dignity and agency. Through the poet's exquisitely drawn imagery, we are inside plantation culture, witnessing the pervasive violence, hearing the whispers of anger, observing the tenderness of lovers, and learning about the dreams that offered respite to each day's brutality. These powerful poems offer insight into the historic resolve, self-determination and resilience of the enslaved African community.