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kmatthe2's review
4.0
This book. Wow. The play with and signifyin on form—damn. The exploration of Black queer identity. Whew.
itacuz's review
5.0
I was listening to a reading T’ai Freedom Ford was giving at a poetry showcase that The New School and Cave Canem Foundation were doing through their Creative Writing Program. After her first reading she said, “My poems get jealous of each other if you clap more for one than the other y’know or one gets the big head and then I gotta go home and deal with this poem…” and while she was referring to a different poetry collection, the same feels true for & More Black. It’s hard for me to separate one poem from another because they all fit together, like a dysfunctional family trying to make sense of their personal history. Puzzle pieces from different moments in a persons life that fit together, but don’t necessarily make just one picture. There’s a cohesiveness I can’t define, logic without instruction can still makes sense, you just have to trust the person supplying it. In the intro to the blue book half of this collection, Patrick Rosal encourages you to read the poems out loud, hear & More Black be, “truth moving at the speed of sound.” I couldn’t give you better advice.
This collection of poetry is divided into two parts. One side is blue and the other is red. The copy I read put the red cover first because the shelfmark number was at the bottom of that side’s spine. When you reach the end of one, you see the end of the other, upside down, coming to you backwards. If that doesn’t make sense then I guess you’d have to see it. The book of poems references art, visual and musical, as well as other works of writing or history, many of which I don’t recognize. At no point reading did I feel the need to understand the context Ford puts the poems in, her words speak for themselves. It might’ve been the case that I’d enjoy them more knowing where they came from, but she doesn’t gate-keep the reader from her poetry because you don’t understand the reference. Everything rings true from jump and only improves with each return to the text. I read the book twice, once in my head while in public and once out-loud, alone in my room. A white man like myself shouldn’t be reading these poems in front of others where someone might mistake my intent, but every poem begs to be read into the air where their words can work magic as intended.
T’ai Freedom Ford’s writing flies and falls from the page like she was in the room with you. Even out of my lips, the words feel full of life. Some halt the speech, catching the audience in images that deserve pause, need a slower pace to fully be taken in. Others race to the end, firing off with a perfect rhythm that can’t be contained by anything other than the poem’s final words. There were some I wanted to hear Ford read herself because no matter how I tried, I couldn’t unlock the pattern her words wanted to be read in. It was right there, under the lines, but I just couldn’t figure it out for myself. Poetry is like that for me sometimes. I wish more opportunities were made for poets to read their work in audiobook form, though maybe they wouldn’t want to perform that way. I don’t know. It’s a mystery that takes my breath away and perplexes me in the same experience. Poetry is both a roadmap through, and deeper into the mysteries of life. I encourage you to get lost deep within & More Black, stumbling back out when Ford’s words pump through your veins as your heart learns a new rhythm improving on the old.
This collection of poetry is divided into two parts. One side is blue and the other is red. The copy I read put the red cover first because the shelfmark number was at the bottom of that side’s spine. When you reach the end of one, you see the end of the other, upside down, coming to you backwards. If that doesn’t make sense then I guess you’d have to see it. The book of poems references art, visual and musical, as well as other works of writing or history, many of which I don’t recognize. At no point reading did I feel the need to understand the context Ford puts the poems in, her words speak for themselves. It might’ve been the case that I’d enjoy them more knowing where they came from, but she doesn’t gate-keep the reader from her poetry because you don’t understand the reference. Everything rings true from jump and only improves with each return to the text. I read the book twice, once in my head while in public and once out-loud, alone in my room. A white man like myself shouldn’t be reading these poems in front of others where someone might mistake my intent, but every poem begs to be read into the air where their words can work magic as intended.
T’ai Freedom Ford’s writing flies and falls from the page like she was in the room with you. Even out of my lips, the words feel full of life. Some halt the speech, catching the audience in images that deserve pause, need a slower pace to fully be taken in. Others race to the end, firing off with a perfect rhythm that can’t be contained by anything other than the poem’s final words. There were some I wanted to hear Ford read herself because no matter how I tried, I couldn’t unlock the pattern her words wanted to be read in. It was right there, under the lines, but I just couldn’t figure it out for myself. Poetry is like that for me sometimes. I wish more opportunities were made for poets to read their work in audiobook form, though maybe they wouldn’t want to perform that way. I don’t know. It’s a mystery that takes my breath away and perplexes me in the same experience. Poetry is both a roadmap through, and deeper into the mysteries of life. I encourage you to get lost deep within & More Black, stumbling back out when Ford’s words pump through your veins as your heart learns a new rhythm improving on the old.
begglebites's review
5.0
I first came across T'ai Freedom Ford in a collection of the BreakBeat Poets anthology and knew I had to read more of her work. This book is split down the middle at about the 50-ish page point on each side, then you flip it over and start at a new beginning, with a new cover and everything.
I'll let Ford sum up the content: "'Black-ass sonnets'... They investigate Black art, Black bodies, Black sexuality, and Black language, unapologetically and with a capital B." (Page 52 of the lavender color side)
I'll let Ford sum up the content: "'Black-ass sonnets'... They investigate Black art, Black bodies, Black sexuality, and Black language, unapologetically and with a capital B." (Page 52 of the lavender color side)
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