A01=Anjail Rashida Ahmad
Author_Anjail Rashida Ahmad
Category=DCF
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
Product details
- ISBN 9780807127148
- Weight: 100g
- Dimensions: 141 x 230mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2001
- Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Using the necessary kindling of unflinching memory and fearless observation, anjail rashida ahmad ignites a slow-burning rage at the generations-long shadow under which African American women have struggled, and sparks a hope that illuminates ""how the acts of women- / loving themselves- / can keep the spirit / renewed."" Fueling the poet's fire- sometimes angry-voiced but always poised and graceful- are memories of her grandmother; a son who ""hangs / between heaven and earth / as though he belonged / to neither""; and ancestral singers, bluesmen and -women, who ""burst the new world,"" creating jazz for the African woman ""half-stripped of her culture.""
In free verses jazzy yet exacting in imagery and thought, ahmad explores the tension between the burden of heritage and fierce pride in tradition. The poet's daughter reminds her of the power that language, especially naming, has to bind, to heal: ""she's giving part of my name to her own child, / looping us into that intricate tapestry of women's names / singing themselves.""
Through gripping narratives, indelible character portraits, and the interplay of cultural and family history, ahmad enfolds readers in the strong weave of a common humanity. Her brilliant and endlessly prolific generation of metaphor shows us that language can gather from any life experience- searing or joyful- ""the necessary kindling / that will light our way home.
In free verses jazzy yet exacting in imagery and thought, ahmad explores the tension between the burden of heritage and fierce pride in tradition. The poet's daughter reminds her of the power that language, especially naming, has to bind, to heal: ""she's giving part of my name to her own child, / looping us into that intricate tapestry of women's names / singing themselves.""
Through gripping narratives, indelible character portraits, and the interplay of cultural and family history, ahmad enfolds readers in the strong weave of a common humanity. Her brilliant and endlessly prolific generation of metaphor shows us that language can gather from any life experience- searing or joyful- ""the necessary kindling / that will light our way home.
Anjail Rashida Ahmad's poems have appeared in Midlands, African American Review, Black Scholar, and Ark/Angel Review among other publications. necessary kindling is her first book. She has received the College Language Association's Margaret Walker Alexander Award and the Janef Preston Prize from The Academy of American Poets.
