Warsan Shire: Bless the Daughter Raised by A Voice in Her Head

The Cheeky Natives

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"With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness." The Cheeky Natives sat down with Warsan Shire following the release of her much anticipated poetry collection.In a far ranging conversation spanning the both themes of the book and the context in which they exist, this complex and layered life was laid out. These poems are a record of black womanhood, a journey often characterised by a prevailing state of precarity and difficulty.Despite this, Warsan also captures the joy and magic in the essence of our journey into becoming. Warsan’s writing is masterful, each poem so vividly and tenderly written that it unfurls as you read it. For fans of Warsan, (s/o to Tumblr), this collections feels like a meeting of old friends, an encounter where one sees just how much they have changed and grown. In many ways, this book is effulgent. A writing against the abyss of trauma, harm and erasure.

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