Description
Poetry. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies. JoAnne McFarland asks, if we are our bodies, what do we do when they betray us? When the life leaves them? When we cannot convince them to reach for what we want to become? Says Leslie McGrath, "Duality runs through the collection; the poems read as conversations between the conscious and unconscious, the personal versus the public. JoAnne McFarland offers the body in thrall, in love, the body etched by ritual, by shame, the Black body, the female body, the body fully human. This collection is a revelation." Janet Kaplan calls this book "a moving picture—text in cinematographic jump cut, close up, and chiaroscuro—of a Black woman as she embodies herself and those she loves and mourns—lives cut down way too soon, stricken, murdered, silenced. For McFarland, identifying the body also means identifying the soul that longs for release and the passions that yearn for fulfillment right here: love and justice embodied, in full measure."
Author Bio
JoAnne McFarland is an artist, poet, and curator and the Artistic Director of Artpoetica Project Space in Gowanus, Brooklyn which exhibits experimental and hybrid works that focus on the intersection of language and visual representation. JoAnne has artwork in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress, The Columbus Museum of Art, and The Department of State, among many others. Her poetry collections include: Tracks of My Tears, IDENTIFYING THE BODY, 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Girl, and Acid Rain. Her curatorial project Sally, a collaboration with artist Sasha Chavchavadze, focuses on women, like Sally Hemings, whose lives have been marginalized, or forgotten. JoAnne has had fellowships at The Painting Center, The Bard Graduate Center Library, KALA Art Institute, and The National Arts Club. JoAnne's recent shows include Queen For a Day at the Bard Graduate Center Library, and Best & Brightest and The Indivisible Spectrum, both at The Painting Center in NYC.
Author City: BROOKLYN, NY USA