Chrome Valley: Poems
Mahogany L. Browne
(Author)
Description
Boldly lyrical and fiercely honest, Mahogany L. Browne's Chrome Valley offers an intricate portrait of Black womanhood in America. "We praise their names / & the hands that write / Praise the mouth that speaks," she writes in tribute to those who came before her.Browne captures a quintessential girlhood through the pleasures and pangs of young love: the thrill of skating hip to hip at the roller rink, the heat of holding hands in the dark, and, sometimes, the sting of a palm across the cheek. Friendship, too, comes with its own complex yearnings: "you ain't had freedom / 'til you climb on bus 62 / & head to the closest mall / for a good seat at the girl fight."
Reflections of Browne's mother, Redbone, bolster the collection with moments of unwavering strength: "give me my mother's bone structure / & her gap tooth slaughter / give me her spine--Redbone got a spine for the world." Other moments explore the inherent anxieties shared among Black mothers, rhythmically intoning names like the tolling of a church bell: "Because Kadiatou Diallo / Because Sybrina Fulton / Because Valeria Bell / Because Mamie Till."
The characters in Chrome Valley grapple with the legacies of inherited trauma but also revel in the beauty of the undaunted self-determination passed down from Black woman to Black woman. Transcendent and grounded, funny and furious, Chrome Valley brings depth to a movement, solidifying Mahogany L. Browne as one of the most significant poetic voices of our time.
Product Details
Price
$26.95
$25.06
Publisher
Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
February 07, 2023
Pages
160
Dimensions
5.32 X 9.01 X 0.67 inches | 0.65 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781324092278
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Mahogany L. Browne: The Cave Canem, Poets House and Serenbe Focus Fellow alum is the author of several books including Swag & Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & listed as About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs and is co-founder of Brooklyn Slam (currently ranked 2nd in the world) and has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada's The Word and UK's MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary Brown Girl Love and Up The Staircase. She is the Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC (as seen on HBO's Brave New Voices) and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. She is the publisher of Penmanship Books, curator & FridayNight Slam host at Nuyorican Poets Café, and Program Director of BLM@Pratt Institute. She also is a recipient of an Agnes Gund Art for Justice award.
Reviews
Generous and expansive--a decidedly full work. Across her poems, Browne deftly creates atmosphere through juxtaposition and pacing.--Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions, "Must-Read Poetry: Winter 2023"