Wild Imperfections
“This multi-generational, cross-cultural anthology […] is infused with multiple perspectives, aesthetics, preoccupations and sensibilities. It offers up a broad sense of community between Black women writers who are consciously interrogating what it means to be human from our unique perspectives.”
– Bernadine Evaristo, Booker Prize Winner, 2019
“This multi-generational, cross-cultural anthology […] is infused with multiple perspectives, aesthetics, preoccupations and sensibilities. It offers up a broad sense of community between Black women writers who are consciously interrogating what it means to be human from our unique perspectives.”
– Bernadine Evaristo, Booker Prize Winner, 2019
Featuring the work of Black women poets from Botswana to Brazil, in this collection, we encounter ancestors who made love, just for the sake of love, and women who die with each orgasm while attempting to mark the extent of their own humanities.
This is for the nuns, the singers, the clowns, the diviners and the conjurers who reject the constant attempt to clean up history. The wildly imperfect women of slick braids, shiny skin and succulent lips, building new homes from clouds for future legions.
Here congregate the women, womxn and womyn who do not believe in tough love that disguises hurt just to prove a point. They dance with the dead with exquisite feet, cheekbones high, reflecting their mothers’ smiles.
Because no one claps for martyrs, these dirty/pretty women learn to walk cities like they own them, choosing the battles of their hearts.
If this collection teaches anything, it is that love is always messy, that our sacrament requires wet wipes and that we are just flesh and bone honing practice.
Natalia Molebatsi is a highly sought-after Pan-African feminist poet, writer, and performer. She is the author of two poetry collections: Sardo Dance and Elephant Woman Song and the editor of We are: A Poetry Anthology and Wild Imperfections: An Anthology of Womanist Poems. Her experimental CD projects, Natalia Molebatsi and the Soul Making and Come as You Are: Poems For Four Strings are available on iTunes. Natalia has performed in over 15 countries on 5 continents and has been published in several academic journals. She is currently a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at Northwestern University.
Contributors include iconic poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Diana Ferrus, Miriam Alves, Jackie Kay, NourbeSe Phillip, Cheryl Clarke, Lebogang Mashile, Staceyann Chin, Olumide Popoola, Makhosazana Xaba, Koleka Putuma, Safia Elhillo, Gabeba Baderoon, Warsan Shire, Ladan Osman, Anni Domingo, Elizandra Souza, Nadia Alexis, Jumoke Verissimo LB Williams, Tjawangwa Dema, d’bi.young anitafrika , Camila Trindade, Jamila Osman, Julie Jokoto, Michelle K Angwenyi, Ngwatilo Mawiyoo, Batsirai E Chigama, Tiffany Willoughby- Herard, vangile gantsho, Alexis Teyie, Momtaza Mehri, Busisiwe Mahlangu, Malika Booker and Ijeoma Umebinyuo.
