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Manorism

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Some very disturbing and powerful work here, especially on race, culture and violence towards black people. Yomi asks and, in a sense, answers in this collection, why it is easy for a white man to escape his wrongdoing, while a Black man is not given the same opportunity. Yomi Sode is a talent and an absolute wave in this century’s poets, you have to give this collection a read for yourself!

I noted to my friend whilst I was struggling to read this collection, “I think I need him (Yomi) to read it to me”. Sode talks about a number of topics, from black Britishness to masculinity, community and popular culture. Yomi Sode interrogates this sociocultural phenomenon, looking at masculinity, intergenerational violence and historical legacy .

Manorism” walks us through the life of black men, an vivid exploration of race, racism, the complexities of inter-racial relationships, Black masculinity, and Black fatherhood. He speaks not only to the moments we might falter in the face of our mourning but also to how we might rebuild, how we might not only survive those who pass, but thrive. Fierce, angry abrasive poems about colonialism, race and the black experience in Britain, interlaced with thoughts on Caravaggio and an extended and gorgeously personal musing on death, this is, at times hard reading. 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.

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.though some of the prose poetry didn’t capture me as much as the rest of the poetry did, i think this is a really wonderful poetry collection that deserves its praise.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It forces readers to question what violence we consider beautiful, which victims worthy of framing and hanging on a white wall? What Sode does brilliantly, though, is to articulate a sense of Black urban masculinity and anxiety for our historical moment: the fear of unwarranted confrontations with the police, the institutionalised/systemic racism that offers the grace of understanding and another chance to a white 'bad boy' like Caravaggio but which is withheld from generations of Black men and women, the vile abuse suffered by public Black figures like Diane Abbott to the everyday racism of being asked to pay for a meal before it's served when the white couple at the next table are not required to do the same. Why does the fear that the white man harbour in his heart, lead to the death or oppression of the Black man? ode takes us on a visceral journey, spilling secrets nakedly, not allowing us to look away from the hard truth .Manorism is filled with poetry of a breath held, a fist clenched and held behind the back, the knockout beckoning always. Yomi, tells a story of the imminent death of his aunty “Big Mummy”; the secrets held within the black community when death by illness takes centre stage; his neglect of his cousin; of an ego bruised by the reality of said neglect; a story of being "there", but not present; a story of the grief of a Black “masculine” male; a story of coming undone in the eye of death. Manorism rages, yet plays with its urgent themes, mixing Yoruba with colloquial speech in a luscious mix of registers and references, from Caravaggio to Mr Marcus, inventing new ways to describe generational trauma and what it's like to endure racism. I think one day, Yomi Sode's Manorism will be required reading for a generation of young Black men . In this profound and moving debut, Yomi Sode asks: what does it mean to find oneself between worlds – to ‘code-switch’, adapting one’s speech and manners to widely differing cultural contexts?

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