Living with Texture!

Y. B. Taylor's LIVING WITH TEXTURE! is, as the subtitle suggests, a volume of poems woven from love. Every aspect of this work--from its cover through its powerful lyrics, to its luminous epigraphs, and its signifying symbol--is an expression of the author's love of words, of African culture, and of people of color, especially Black women. The collection is a paean to our history and a rebuke of a sick and lost America that brutalizes and refuses to appreciate or even see its Black queens and their realities. This is a work whose author demands recognition ("Can you see me now?") and proclaims herself the bard of her people ("So I write Black"), a work signaling the demise of The Birth of a Nation and the "dawning of a new day." Daryl Cumber Dance, Professor EmeritaVirginia Commonwealth University and University of Richmond LIVING WITH TEXTURE is my seventh book of poetry or literary child. With plans to publish shortly after Election 2020, LIVING WITH TEXTURE was originally subtitled Poems of Love, i.e., uplifting, joyful poetic words, reflecting a promise for needed CHANGE in leadership of this country. However, as 2020 unfolded with daily exposures of hate, which were further exacerbated by restrictions and mandates of COVID-19, my poems veered and the subtitle became Poems from Love, i.e., from love of humanity; from love of melanin people; from love of family of blood; from love of family of bond; from love of integrity; from love of possibilities; and, from love of promise of what this nation could be. My poetry reflects my perspectives and observations of what is going on in, around and about the world and how I am affected personally, which means my poems are not always pretty and are sometimes controversial. I perceive America as having been a difficult delivery after a forced conception; a temper-tantrum two-year old; a pubescent teen, developing and susceptible to hormonal ups and downs, and subject to peer pressure; a young adult, desiring to flex muscles and demand command of situations, which they are not yet prepared to command. With the election of Barack Obama as this nation's first Black president, I wanted to believe America had finally matured, but the past four years proved my thinking wrong. Maturity, often associated with adulthood, was bypassed and America fell into negative behaviors often associated with age and dementia, i.e., aggression, anger, apathy, shortened attention span, and disinterest in learning and accepting new concepts. The offerings in LIVING WITH TEXTURE speak to these dysfunctional characteristics as well as my concerns for America's future.