THE IDEA OF THE BLACK FEMALE FIGURE

Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems (New York: Knopf, 2016) (From the book cover: "Robin Coste Lewis's electrifying collection is a triptych that begins and ends with lyric poems considering the role of desire and race play in the construction of 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 to present times--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? . . . [T]his poet adores her culture and the beauty to be found within it. Yet she is also a cultural critic alert to he nuances of race and desire and how they define us all, including herself, as she explores her own sometimes painful history. Lewis's book is a thrilling aesthetic anthem to the complexity of race--a full embrace of its pleasure and horror, in equal parts.").