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Letters to a Young Brown Girl
Series: American Poets Continuum Series
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Check link for latest rating. ( 196 ratings, 36 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Letters to a Young Brown Girl
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This collection is essential for readers interested in contemporary poetry, social justice, and the experiences of women of colour. It will particularly resonate with Filipino American communities and those seeking a fierce, empathetic exploration of identity, feminism, and resistance.
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See moreReyes's unapologetic intersectionally feminist "tough love" poems show young women of color, especially Filipinas, how to survive oppression with fearlessness.
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Description
Barbara Jane Reyes answers the questions of Filipino American girls and young women of colour with bold affirmations of hard-won empathy, fierce intelligence, and a fine-tuned B.S. detector.
The Brown Girl of these poems is fed up with being shushed, with being constantly told how foreign, unattractive, and unwanted she is. She's flipping tables and throwing chairs. She's raising her voice. She's keeping a sharp focus on the violences committed against her every day, and she's writing through the depths of her "otherness" to find beauty and even grace amidst her rage.
Simultaneously looking into the mirror and out into the world, Reyes exposes the sensitive nerve-endings of life under patriarchy as a visible immigrant woman of colour as she reaches towards her unflinching centre.
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Letters to a Young Brown Girl
Barbara Jane Reyes answers the questions of Filipino American girls and young women of colour with bold affirmations of hard-won empathy, fierce intelligence, and a fine-tuned B.S. detector. The Brown Girl of these poems is fed up with being shushed, with being constantly told how foreign, unattractive, and unwanted she is. She's flipping tables and throwing chairs. She's raising her...Paperback$5000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Critics praise Letters to a Young Brown Girl as a powerful and urgent voice against imperialism and commoditisation. Willie Perdomo lauds the book as Reyes's most potent work, describing it as a "duende"—a deeply soulful force—as the poems offer life-saving questions and transformative insights. The collection is recognised as a vital gathering place and site of survival for young brown girls, blending interrogation and empowerment in intensely moving verse.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781950774173
Publisher: BOA Editions, Limited
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 05 November 2020
Country: United States
Imprint: BOA Editions, Limited
Illustration: Illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 177.0mm
Height: 228.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 72
About the Author
Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of five previous collections of poetry: Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2006), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, Diwata (BOA, 2010), which received the Global Filipino Literary Award for Poetry, To Love as Aswang (PAWA, Inc. Publications, 2015), Invocation to Daughters (City Lights, 2017), and Letters to a Young Brown Girl (BOA, 2020). She is an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco's Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland, CA.
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