Social Justice Poetry Spoken-word poet Valerie Mason-John unsettles readers with potent images of ongoing trauma from slavery and colonization. Her narratives range from the beginnings of the African Diaspora to the story of a stowaway on the Windrush, from racism and sexism in Trump's America to the wide impact of the Me Too movement. Stories of entrapment, sexual assault, addictive behaviours, and rave culture are told and contrasted to the strengthening and forthright voice of Yaata, Supreme Being. I Am Still Your Negro is truth that needs to be told, re-told, and remembered. I was your Negro
Captured and sold I am still your negro
Arrested and killed
—from "I Am Still Your Negro" Reviews: "[T]he wide range of Mason-John’s vision ... traverses history, geography, and culture.... [Her poetry] is significant for its reappraisal of our collective past, which so often overlooks or writes over marginalized voices and experiences. [Mason-John is] explicit in calling out a hypocritical Canadian multiculturalism that pays lip service to inclusion while simultaneously entrenching systemic biases and processes that maintain a racist and exclusionary status quo." [Full review at https://quillandquire.com/review/the-response-of-weeds-a-misplacement-of-black-poetry-on-the-prairies/ ]
— Steven W. Beattie, Quill & Quire, April 2020 "This poetry collection grabs you... Readers are confronted with the violence of the Black experience, from the haunting spectre of slavery to the current and ongoing terrorizing of the Black diaspora at the hands of the police. All of the messy, the painful, the enraging -- what we’re conditioned to believe as shameful -- is laid bare for the readers and brought to the fore. Many of these accounts traverse various places -- whether in the U.K., the U.S., or Canada -- and the bluntness and force of her words arrest you." [Full article at https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/book-review-i-am-still-your-negro-by-valerie-mason-john]
— Junie Desil, August 2020 Included on CBC Books's list of top Canadian poetry of the year in December 2020. "I Am Still Your Negro takes no prisoners. With sheer brilliance, Valerie Mason-John creates poems that burn Babylon and Rome; bring you to tears; make you shout hallelujah. Her voice is that of the lamenting mother, vengeful goddess, triumphant warrior, compassionate lover, a cool ruler with a pure heart. I am left with only one conclusion about this book: it is a tour de force."
— Afua Cooper is Halifax's Poet Laureate, a global Dub poet, and Black Studies professor at Dalhousie University "I Am Still Your Negro hauls us all up by the collar to face our shared complicity. A lot of damage has been inflicted through racism, sexism, greed. Mason-John opens some wounds in the hope of healing them."
— Alice Major, author of Welcome to the Anthropocene About the Author: Poet, author, and public speaker Valerie Mason-John (a.k.a. “Queenie”) highlights issues of the African Diaspora and the Black, female, Queer identity and resists the currently existing overt and covert forms of colonialism through her fierce and brave writing. She is the author of eight books. Her debut novel, Borrowed Body, won the 2006 Mind Book of the Year Award. She co-edited the award-winning anthology, The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry and co-produced blackhalifax.com. She lives in Vancouver. Find her online at valeriemason-john.com. |
