BOOKS

Reissue of Jaki Shelton Green’s acclaimed premier collection of poetry. Green’s earlier works pulse with the intoxicating rhythms and fierce clarity of image that made her one of North Carolina’s most popular poets. Here is an artist at turns angry and wickedly funny, demanding justice yet possessed of a refined grace.

A long-awaited compendium of selections from Green’s previous books as well as many new poems, including her response to 9-11-01.

I have not known your face as woman my first born/my first one/my new self I am learning to speak in whole sentences learning not to speak always in the mother tongue we are learning that we can be sisters that we can open the curtains together that we can each call morning something else

A ritual of grace and love for what remains in memory after great loss.

I Want To Undie You is Jaki Shelton Green’s unflinching cry of sorrow at the untimely death of her daughter Imani; and Jaki’s insistence, through her grief, on the joyful remembrance and celebration of Imani’s life

This book-length poem, interspersed with Barbara Tyroler’s photographic compilations, is printed in a limited edition art gallery version, using 80# gloss interior paper in an 8 by 10 format to better highlight the imagery of the poems and the photos.

“Rooted in hypnagogic logic and deeply seated in the tradition of Jayne Cortez, Quincy Troupe and Ntozake Shange, Jaki Shelton Green’s verse narratives pay homage to the orphic ethos of the mythmaking South with all the viscous verve of Van Gogh with a palette of syllables, images and words blurring through our senses like the thick, sleek wax of magnolia leaves. Her images conjure cultural beauty from a world-weary—yet ecstatic—kaleidoscopic lens while sustaining a pained relevance that serves up love from every angle of human anguish: the forced marriage of a child bride; memories of grandmothers and mentors, praiseworthy and proud. In Feeding the Light, Jaki Shelton Green captivates with a global vision. Her poems are totems and tomes; they are percussive, convulsive and constructive.”

Tony Medina, author of Broke Baroque, The President Looks Like Me & Other Poems, and An Onion of Wars.

A special edition poetry chapbook in celebration of Jaki Shelton Green’s receipt of the 2003 North Carolina Award for Literature. Contains 8 new poems, including “Lifting Veils” dated 9/11/2001, and the long poem entitled “bring me your breasts.”