First Book of Praise Poems - Woman In The Wind

"In Woman in the Wind, Andrene Bonner honors the African Praise Poem tradition to uplift and celebrate the lives of influential women across cultures, including Michelle Obama, Wangari Maathai, Michelle Obama, Greta Thunberg, and Louise Bennett-Coverley. Blending Caribbean rhythms and African aesthetics with the communal power of an ancestral griot, Bonner’s collection offers a bold, poetic resistance to the erasure of women's stories."
Geoffrey Philp, author of Archipelagos

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"Those who name have Power. Andrene Bonner. In Woman in the Wind, Bonner evokes the spirit of Oya in the praise poem for Reggae icons, the I-Three, and names African American Former First Lady of New York, as Oya, goddess of the wind, goddess of the hurricane, goddess of sudden change. This righteous naming inspirits these women with the ashe of transformation so necessary in this era. We need new definitions to help us navigate the changing terrain of textualities, gender identities, and geo-political complexities. Oya’s energies demand quick thinking and adaptation to instant and dramatic change if we are to survive the chaos and uncertainty that a hurricane brings. Bonner’s Praisesongs to these powerful diverse women―whose very presence in the space they occupy so elegantly embodies radical transformation―is as courageous and beautiful as the women whose praises they sing. Her poems ensure that their legacy will live on for generations to come. In centering our African traditions, in centering woman, Andrene Bonner centers liberational poetics, centers diversity, centers the power of women to sustain and build each other against all odds. This is how we honor our ancestral traditions. This is how we honor the power of the feminine. This is how we show radical love to our own, to ourselves."
Donna Aza Weir-Soley, author of The Woman Who Knew (Finishing Line Press), First Rain (Peepal Tree Press), Eroticism, Spirituality and Resistance in Black Women’s Writings (University Press of Florida) and Co-editor (with Opal Palmer Adisa) of the anthology, Caribbean Erotic (Peepal Tree Press).

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