A Gesture Toward Home

This manuscript explores the tenuous relationship between Black girlhood and womanhood. This collection asks: "What is and isn't sacred? Who deems the boundaries of our bodies? How do these questions shift with age?" These pieces consider how age becomes a mediating factor to how we understand body image, familial relationships, and homeplace. These poems travel though the physical landscape of Washington, DC on the page, where it feels possible to confront and engage with the shadows and taboos of homeplace. These poems roam about the house, run hands along the framework, and make space for voices to shout or quietly meditate. These poems reflect on the influence of a matriarchal family through lenses of warmth as well as suffering. The goal of this collection is to tell the truth, even if it requires some fiction. The goal of this collection is to criticize the toxic practices that come along with raising a black girl, while giving grace to the mothers raising.