Shedding Light From My Journeys at Amazon.com
Category:
Poetry
Shedding Light from My Journeys is a volume of poetry which reveals the passionate and insightful perspective of a young poet on art, spirituality, womanhood, community and more.
Throughout time and history there have always been those people who through communal traditions and rites, step up to be the keepers of legacy, of honored traditions and spokespersons for their culture. Whether through song, dance, musical instrument, or word, the spoken word, keepers and spokespersons of culture, take responsibility to lend powerful and potentially world changing contributions, through their art. DuEwa Frazier - young poet, writer, teacher and performer, is one of these people. She is a spokeswoman for her culture.
In DuEwa's poetry you hear the stories of our great past, the times in which we ruled and reigned supreme. As this book's title sug- gests, most, if not all of her poetry, starts you on a journey, takes you somewhere, in your mind and speaks of the journeys of an African people, from past to present. Just as poetry is ancient, DuEwa, through her words, reminds us that , we too, are ancient and our ancient past is juxtaposed to our present.
Reading Shedding Light From My Journeys, reveals that the royalty within us is accounted for and spoken for! Not only does DuEwa's poetry speak in lengthy tones regarding our history, it reflects the tenets of all the great griots. You can hear great poets like Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Gwendolyn Brooks in her poems such as "Journeys", "Us Creative Women" and "I Dream of Justice for Louima." These poems show love, freedom, beauty and a people's commitment to be bold, diverse, and under- stood. These poems also urge us to embrace life's experiences as lessons of a journey and to live our lives like, "Yes, we once were
Kings and Queens and we are that." From the actions and expressions which come from thinking, comes responsibility.
Likewise the pursuit of freedom through revolution also bears responsibility. DuEwa takes her writing seriously, takes her poetry seriously and through her words we realize we are great, we are free to be us, free to dream and free to journey. DuEwa has stepped up to the plate, now it is our turn.
Abiodun Oyewole
International poet, teacher and performer
The Last Poets
New York, NY 2002
|
