Lioness
by Chérie Taylor Battiste
Debut collection on motherhood, race, relationships and life.
“this is the woman
that raised Chérie
and I am
the woman that bore her”
What does ‘motherhood’ mean to someone who was taken from their mother? What does ‘blackness’ mean to someone deprived of their culture? And how does someone reassemble themselves after being torn apart by racist and relationship abuse?
Lioness brings together the broken pieces of a life lived always as ‘other’, celebrating the cracks and fissures in the same way that the Japanese art of kintsugi honours a damaged pot with gold lacquer, transforming its imperfections and fractures into strength, beauty and truth.
“The strength and lyricism of these poems is evident in the terse story-telling, dance-like patterns of rhyme and assonance, alliterative ‘djembe’ beat, and vivid sustained imagery drawn from the poet’s complex cultural heritage and beyond. Lioness is a powerful, lyrical and inspiring account of a resilient human spirit... These poems deserve to be heard and read!” Eleanor Hall
Edition: First
Date Published: 2019-07-02
ISBN: 9781912436149
Catalogue Number: VP0134
Number of Pages: 96
Cover design by Jamie McGarry and Chérie Taylor Battiste
Cover photograph by Sophie Rackett
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