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Voyage of the Sable Venus : and other poems / Robin Coste Lewis.

by Lewis, Robin Coste.

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Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.

Women, Black -- Poetry.

Women, Black, in art -- Poetry.

American poetry -- Women authors.

American poetry -- 21st century.

National Book Awards.

American poetry -- Black authors.

9781101875438 (hc.)

1101875437 (hc.)

x, 142 p. ; 25 cm.

"This is a Borzoi book."

Plantation -- On the road to Sri Bhuvaneshwari -- Mother Church No. 3 -- verga: -- The Wilde woman of Aiken -- The mothers -- From: To: -- Beauty's nest -- Red all over -- Dog talk -- Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man -- Summer -- Voyage of the Sable Venus. Prologue: ; The ship's inventory ; Invocation : blessing the boat ; Catalog I : ancient Greece & ancient Rome ; Catalog 2 : ancient Egypt ; Catalog 3 : the womb of Christianity ; Catalog 4 : Medieval colonial ; Catalog 5 : Emancipation & independence ; Catalog 6 : modern, civil, right ; Catalog 7 : modern post ; Catalog 8 : the present/our town ; Notes -- Frame -- Art & craft -- Lure -- The body in August -- Second line -- Pleasure & understanding -- Félicité.

"A stunning poetry debut: this meditation on the black female figure throughout time introduces us to a brave and penetrating new voice. This electrifying collection is a triptych that begins and ends with lyric poems considering the roles desire and race play in the construction of the self. The central panel is the title poem, 'Voyage of the Sable Venus,' a riveting narrative made up entirely of titles of artworks from ancient times to the present -- titles that feature or in some way comment on the black female figure in Western art. Bracketed by Lewis's autobiographical poems, 'Voyage' is a tender and shocking study of the fragmentary mysteries of stereotype, as it juxtaposes our names for things with what we actually see and know. Offering a new understanding of biography and the self, this collection questions just where, historically, do ideas about the black female figure truly begin -- five hundred years ago, five thousand, or even longer? And what role has art played in this ancient, often heinous story? From the 'Young Black Female Carrying / a Perfume Vase' to a 'Little Brown Girl / Girl Standing in a Tree / First Day of Voluntary / School Integration,' this poet adores her culture and the beauty to be found within it. Yet she is also a cultural critic alert to the nuances of race and desire and how they define us all, including herself, as she explores her own sometimes painful history. Robin Coste Lewis is a Provost's Fellow in Poetry and Visual Studies at the University of Southern California. She received her BA from Hampshire College, her MFA in poetry from NYU, and an MTS in Sanskrit and comparative religious literature from the Divinity School at Harvard University. She has taught at Wheaton College, Hunter College, Hampshire College, and the NYU Low-Residency MFA in Paris. Lewis was born in Compton, California; her family is from New Orleans"--Provided by publisher.

Winner of the National Book Award for Poetry, 2015.

American poetry.

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