Plantains and Our Becoming
Poems
Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · August 22, 2023
A rousing, beautifully observed, and tender-hearted debut poetry collection about identity, culture, home, and belonging—for fans of Jasmine Mans and Fatimah Asghar “We, children of plátanos, always gotta learn to play in everyone else’s backyard and somehow feel at home.” Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLAINTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary.
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- Who it’s for
- These poems hold identity, ancestry, and the histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic alongside joy.
- Themes
- Identity, culture, and belonging, Black diasporic experience, Colonialism and racism
- Genres
- African American Poetry, Hispanic American Poetry, Caribbean & Latin American Poetry
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For younger readers: Plátanos Go With Everything, The Garden of Second Chances, Never Look Back
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A rousing, beautifully observed, and tender-hearted debut poetry collection about identity, culture, home, and belonging—for fans of Jasmine Mans and Fatimah Asghar “We, children of plátanos, always gotta learn to play in everyone else’s backyard and somehow feel at home.” Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLAINTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary. But the dictionary is far from a record of the truth.
Continue reading
What does it mean, then, to tend to your own words and your own record—to build upon the legacies of your ancestors? In this imaginative, blistering poetry collection, Marte looks at the identities and histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black diasporic experience. Through the exploration of themes like self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational trauma, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood. Moving from New York to Texas to the Dominican Republic and to Haiti, this collection looks at the legacies of colonialism and racism but never shies away from highlighting the beauty—and joy—that comes from celebrating who you are and where you come from. PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is “a full-throated war cry; both a request for anointment and the responding bendición” (Elizabeth Acevedo).
Roots and Becoming
These poems hold identity, ancestry, and the histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic alongside joy.
Come here for
- Black diasporic identity explored with tenderness and fire
- Poems attentive to home, displacement, and ancestral knowledge
Expect
- A clear-eyed reckoning with colonialism and racism
- Joy that insists on celebrating who you are and where you come from
Where it sits
| Caribbean & Latin American Poetry | 56% |
|---|---|
| Hispanic American Poetry | 55% |
| African American Poetry | 53% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Hispanic American Poetry
- Caribbean & Latin American Poetry
- Women Poets
- Authors
- Melania Luisa Marte
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- August 22, 2023
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Identity, culture, and belonging · Black diasporic experience · Colonialism and racism
- Reading lane
- Hispanic American Poetry