Manorism

Product Information

I noted to my friend whilst I was struggling to read this collection, “I think I need him (Yomi) to read it to me”.

I think one day, Yomi Sode's Manorism will be required reading for a generation of young Black men . It is more deep and meaningful and touches more important subjects and I think you need to have a bit of experience with poetry to understand some of its experiences. This is not a criticism but it seems to me that Sode's poetry works more effectively as oral, performance verse rather than textual, written-down verse - its complexity and power is in the emotion and ideas that are articulated with force and a directness that is about a strong voice and a pointed passion. Alongside this political public poetry, is the series of grieving and mourning poems: emotive pieces on the mothers who learn that their young Black sons have been killed in police custody, and the narrator's own over-spilling feelings at the death of Big Mummy, made even more potent by the cultural prohibitions on Black men who cry.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But rather than railing angrily, Yomi asserts himself and his kinship to have the right to speak and live according to their cultures and traditions.

Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Yomi really put so much soul into this and I loved the exploration into black British masculinity, childhood, friendship, family, the way we carry ourselves in society and the realisation that he deserves so much more than the limited way he's been made to experience this life. Is it our fault or theirs that in confrontation they feel less empire, more artifact - less demigod and more a future meme? Caravaggio - originally, unexpectedly - looms large: as a man who moved between spheres of exalted patronage and petty criminality; as a painter who, amid the elegant conventions of late Mannerism, forged his own style of visceral dark and light; and as an individual whose recognized genius was allowed to legitimate and excuse his violence. Alongside, the political message, there is also a series of poems focusing on grief and mourning of relatives and other people of the Black community, bringing to light the fact that articulating ones emotions and vulnerability is fine even for Black men, who often frown upon 'crying'.

Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall).

In poems exploring family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging, Manorism is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read a comment made by David Starkey, a historian, radio and television presenter - "Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there? ode takes us on a visceral journey, spilling secrets nakedly, not allowing us to look away from the hard truth. the prose poetry was not quite as strong as the rest of the poetry, it didn’t seem to have the same flow for me.

I agree with another reviewer, who mentioned that Sode's poetry perhaps works more effectively as oral performance. the poetry really conveys meaningful and personal experiences and explores themes of racism and black history really well. Sode quotes from news stories: Stormzy, David Starkey's abusive genocide remark, Dominic Raab's ignorant comment on taking the knee, the unforgivable abuse of Bukayo Saka after the World Cup.