Wearing My Mother's Heart

August 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 Drawing on her Gambian and South Asian heritage, British performance poet Thakur pays tribute to the women in her life in her second poetry collection. Ranging from just a few lines to longer stanzas, the mostly free verse poems flow loosely, as in her first book (Somebody Give This Heart a Pen, 2020), and ultimately create a montage of abstract images and events from her family and personal history. The intergenerational poems also vary in perspective (though it's not always clear whose point of view or memory is represented) and poignantly evoke how race, politics, story, God, heartache, and romance have shaped each woman individually as well as united them with shared struggles and joy. At the center of the book, however, is the power of self-love and freedom of expression, topics that will especially resonate with girls and young women. The format allows them to dip in and out as they wish and savor such stanzas as "A woman has always been / what it means to live," which sums up Thakur's touching look at modern women.

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Starred review from July 1, 2023
A poet's ode to the women in her family. Thakur, a British performance poet of Gambian and Asian descent, writes that her "mouth mostly speaks from the abundance of" her mother's and grandmothers' love. Having lived "vastly different" lives from the author's, they haven't always agreed, but "their hearts have always been more powerful than any rule or rationale," and she emphasizes the importance of understanding them. These sentiments from Thakur's introduction establish the vein in which the poetry that follows traverses generations, traveling through geographies of land, mind, and body. A sense of being rooted, as well of searching, clearly comes through in this collection, as the author weaves together themes of love, belonging, race, and identity. In "It Was a Different Time," Thakur writes, "In a culture of scales / that tip to tradition, / my sisters and I grate our fingertips away in the kitchen, / callous to our kaleidoscope dreams, / blink into the eyes of society, / stand behind the mirror / and hold our hips. // We read them in Braille... // 'You are function before you are female.'" The evocative and poignant poetry explores the power a mother holds; art, censorship, and exploitation; and God, romance, love, and more. Memory, family, hope, and grief hold the poems together while they strongly excavate sociopolitical themes. Reading them is unsettling--and powerfully beautiful. A masterful, immersive read. (Poetry. 14-adult)

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September 4, 2023
Via substantive verse, British performance poet Thakur (Somebody Give This Heart a Pen) stitches together a complex homage to her forebears. In an introduction, the author writes that “it’s imperative to understand the stories that the women before us lived.” She also recognizes that her, her mother’s, and her grandmother’s “opinions on... race and womanhood clash hugely,” even as she details things they have in common, such as their capacity for love and care. In poems that span cultures, generations, and locations—and are often written from the perspectives of her Gambian and Southeast Asian relatives—Thakur offers brief yet thoughtful meditations on her ancestors’ histories. A vulnerable feeling of reverence for her family’s past lingers throughout the collection, as when she writes “I hope to catch a glimpse, if only a droplet… of what I/ would’ve been like if born to your time. And I’m sure that’s/ the reason behind your mother’s slow smile./ You’re wild...and oh/ how we wish we were.” Through powerful polyphonic narration, Thakur presents profound exclamations of affection for the ever-deepening nature of mother-daughter relationships, while simultaneously grappling with how violence, imposed assimilation, and exclusion affect Black youth. Ages 12–up.

October 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-Spoken-word poet and London native Thakur speaks in living memory of tradition, family, and friendship, drawing from reflections on perseverance and resilience. Referencing her Gambian grandparents in the 1960s and the choices they made that broke with religious doctrine and familial tradition, Thakur uses free-form and rhyming verse in her "reflections on family, first love, grief, belief and resolution." For instance, "Wearing our Mothers," reflects on the joyful light her grandmother shone. Many of the poems use the imagery of mirrors and reflections to describe ancestral lineage and the art of seeing through the eyes of one's predecessors. Though not presented as strictly linear, later poems focus on mature love and evoke darker imagery, but the closing works reveal an opening to self-love, empathy, and thankfulness. Poems addressed to an unnamed "you" speak to absent lovers, present caregivers, the poet herself, and readers as both subject and object of reflection. Some poems are brief stanzas, like a whisper of memory or a half-remembered song, which risk appearing simplistic or sentimental fragments that could have been developed further. VERDICT This collection will resonate with readers who enjoy the poems of Naomi Shihab Nye and the works of Elizabeth Acevedo and will appeal to the poet's many social media followers.-Rebecca Jung

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