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by Kendra N. B. Aya (Author)
we be theorizin: black poiēsis no. 1. vol. 44 is Kendra's debut poetry collection of haikus, tankas, sonnets, and spoken word poems written in the Black Arts Movement tradition. Compiled of 44 poems, thus marking the age at which Kendra collected her work, we be theorizin reflects the writing style and protest of the Black Arts Movement, while paying homage to the theoretical dexterity of Black feminist writers like Maya Angelou, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Barbara Christian. Organized in three parts: "thru morning pulses"; "we be theorizin"; and "Black life unexpected"--each of which includes a prose essay as introductory matter to the poems included in each section--we be theorizin employs the sonnet, haiku, tanka, and spoken word to talk b(l)ack to the empire about what Katherine McKittrick terms "a black life unexpected." With poems acknowledging the Black Lives Matter Movement to others recalling 20th century Black literature and critical race thoughts, Kendra has compiled a collection that is sure to incite and inspire. To educate even, for we be theorizin, especially with its copious endnotes, is just as much an archive of (Black) American history and literature as it is a collection of prose and poetry. But isn't all writing a recorded history of human existence? Kendra's we be theorizin, however, extends record keeping and answers W.E.B. DuBois' 1926 call to use art as propaganda. And so, it is. "Ey yo!" writes Kendra in her opening poem, "callin Òrìṣàs: . . . come out come out wherever you are."
