travelogue of the bereaved

These poems challenge the notion of “home” for persons of African descent born outside the continent. Closely attentive to form and content, narrative and emotion, history and the contemporary, they tell stories that are little known­—­­the lives of persons of African descent at different periods in the Americas. It is Smith’s voice that counts here, and the techniques he uses, akin to those of jazz. His stories say much about our times and their foundations, recreating figures such as Marie Josephe Angelique, Viola Desmond, John Brown, Maryann Shadd, and Mumia. The weaving between sections, and the forms used expose the transhistorical so that each particular narrative is linked to a more telling composition. About the Author: Charles C Smith teaches Cultural Pluralism in the Arts at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and is the cultural director of “wind in the leaves collective,” an interdisciplinary performance group combining his poetry with music, dance and visual arts. His poetry has been published in Fiddlehead, Poetry Canada Review, Prairie Fire, Descant, Quill and Quire, Poetry Toronto, Prairie Fire, Anti-Racism in Education: Missing in Action, and ‘Pluralism in the Arts in Canada: A Change is Gonna Come’. He has also edited Sad Dances in a Field of White (Is Five Press), Bantu (Black Perspectives) and Teeth of the Whirlwind (Black Perspectives). His first book, Partial Lives (1987), appeared through Williams-Wallace Press and a chap book, Fleurette Africaine (wind in the leaves collective), was released in February 2012. He has also written and edited several non-fiction essays and books.