Starred review from August 21, 2023
In this ecstatic debut, Byas chronicles a Black woman’s coming-of-age in Chicago, the city that shaped her. The collection takes its structure from the layered narrative arcs of the 1978 film The Wiz, a Black reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz, to weave a story of the speaker’s path from the South Side to the wider world and back again. Byas has a knack for lyrically capturing small details that make the speaker’s South Side community unique, as in the poem “Corner Store”: “These aisles I can’t forget;/ the quarter bags of chips I’d buy and flip/ for profit in our sock-rot locker rooms,/ the frosted glass doors with their fingerprints/ and drinks I dreamed to taste-test on porch steps.” In her portrayal, the South Side may be full of tough love, but love nevertheless abounds: “—the women cooking/ on their balconies and patios to side-/ eye all the young folks slinking past… this is a form of love as well,/ the way they judge the length of your daisy dukes/ and feed you, send you home with a plate.” These nuanced and complex poems offer unforgettable snapshots of Black life in a vibrant city.
Starred review from July 1, 2023
Frontier Poetry Award winner Byas examines coming of age, family relationships, self-discovery, and homecoming in this stellar, bildungsroman-style debut. Taking inspiration from The Wiz, a musical retelling of The Wizard of Oz centering on a Black schoolteacher from Harlem, the collection focuses on the concept of home. Using a variety of formats and tones, the poems move through childhood, adolescence, the departure from home, and the return. But throughout, the poet uses her strong voice to deliver evocative, richly described snapshots illustrating discrete moments in time. For example, in the lyrical "Blackberrying" she writes, "I could not tell if my mother's sighed requiem was for the fruit / or my ruined clothes. Perhaps she lamented the deep red stain // on my hands, mistaken for the first sample of womanhood." Byas' imagery is anchored in Chicago's South Side, where she grew up, inextricably linking the poems to their setting. In "Tender-Headed," as her grandmother does Byas' hair, "She hums 'For Your Glory, ' / parts my hair into sections, / gridding out old city streets / and rows of cotton." This one striking image tells the history of a family. In this promising work, Byas tells an intimate story of growing up.
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