REVIEWS

Black Raising Cane Over Red by Jawanza Dumisani is a Saturday night dance in poetry. Part bluesman part jazzman using language like an abstract painter. A skilled storyteller moving us through his experiences in urban landscapes, while exposing the deep southern roots of his family tree with pure unadulterated intimacy. There is nourishment waiting us in his offering.

Kamau Daaood- co-founder of THE WORLD STAGE in Leimert Park Village and author of The Language Of Saxophones

An intelligent and supremely hip authenticity informs this earthy homage rich with “up-home” imagery as unforgettable as the aromatic shine of Murray’s pomade, Marvin Gaye’s lilt or the sweet taste of molasses on hot-buttered biscuits. Jawanza Dumisani’s poems usher us front and center to The Motor City during its most celebrated and politically charged era.

Wanda Coleman-Author of Mercurochrome and The Riot Inside Me

Jazz riffs, Motown rhythms, and the Detroit neighborhood patois of the 1960’s all mixed together, and that will give you a clue as to how to read Jawanza Dumisani’s poetry. Add to that the knowledge that he found his earliest literary influences in the elevated language of The King James Bible, and in the intricacies and extravagance of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and you’ll have some sense of what’s in store for you: no ordinary poetry collection. Total immersion in these pages will reward the reader with little explosions of power and loveliness, such as this, for example: “ Sudden as church bells/ opening morning glory/ you awoke.

Suzanne Lummis- Author of In Danger & co-founder of The Los Angeles Poetry Festival

Every once in a while a reading combines all the right elements and the alchemy of something truly memorable happens. Jawanza Dumisani’s featured reading and book signing at The World Stage tonight was one of those rare and precious events. It’s fitting that he returns to the place of his poetic origins to launch a stellar new book from FarStarFire Press called Stoetry. This was indeed a homecoming.

Robert Peak-Robert studied poetry at the University of California, Berkeley and in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at Pacific University, Oregon.