Black Girl, Call Home

(Paperback)

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A literary coming-of-age poetry collection, an ode to the places we call home, and a piercingly intimate deconstruction of daughterhood, Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing. A Most Anticipated Book of 2021 byOprah Magazine.Time.Vogue.Vulture.Essence. Elle. Cosmopolitan. Real Simple.Marie Claire.Refinery 29.Shondaland .Pop Sugar.Bustle.Reader's Digest "Nothing short of sublime, and the territory Mans' explores...couldn't be more necessary."-Vogue From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself-and us-home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America-and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.

Reviews

Lyrical, vivid.
Time

Each poem is a meditation on a moment, a memory, and a history that guides the reader through the experience of Black womanhood in a way Ive not experienced before. These poems both explode and glimmer on the page. They demand to be read, to be shared, to be revisited time and time again.
Clint Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed

[Mans] lucid and lyrical lines are as undeniable as those of a pop song yet as arresting as only spoken word artistry can be.
O, the Oprah Magazine

You are carrying in your hands a Black womans heart.
Jericho Brown, author of Pulitzer Prize winner The Tradition

Read it in a day. Arresting. Beautiful language. Thoughtful examination of girlhood, Blackness, & queer identity. Bought a 2nd copy specifically for loaning out to friends. Its that good! Read it!
New York Times bestselling author Phoebe Robinson

"Atender distillation of black girlhood. Mans draws together both intricate adornment and the unvarnished truth.
Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster

Mans takes up the tools of Brooks and Sanchez into her good hands and chisels us an urgent and grand work, proving why shes the favorite poet of all the girls in the back of the bus.
Danez Smith, author of National Book Award finalist for poetry Don't Call Us Dead

This book is a haven for all the Black daughters out there, hoping to make sense of the power and powerlessness in their bodies, the connection to others' bodies, and the moments of everyday life that comprise so much of our identities.
Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing

Spoken-word poet Jasmine Manss gift with words is nothing short of sublime, and the territory she explores in this poetry collectionfrom waiting for her mother to get home from work and do her hair as a child in Newark to coming into her full as a young, queer Black womancouldnt be more necessary.
Vogue

The collection is so steeped with tenderness, it feels intimate and wholly relatable.
Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts Are Family

In adeft and breathtaking portrayal of identity, race, sexuality, family, and feminism,spoken-word poet Jasmine Mans exploresthe painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman in America.
Marie Claire

Mans is the kind of poignant writer who gives voice to the voiceless and reminds us about the need to care for others.
Shondaland

Gorgeously precisea timely and powerful book.
Publishers Weekly

If your grandmother has ever surprised you by bopping along to trap music at a cookout you will love Jasmine Mans work.
Essence

Delving into heartbreak, community, family, race, queer identity, sexual violence, feminism, and celebrity, Mans' poems are startling and unforgettable.
Booklist

Jasmine Mans pulls at all the threads of who she is as a Black queer woman from Newark, unravels herself, then puts herself back together via clear, precise language that brooks no argumentBlack Girl, Call Home moves from vignette to cultural criticism to ballad to eulogy to memoir with grace.
Vulture

"Mans story feels universal in so many ways."
Real Simple

Writing in surefooted verse, Mans refuses to allow our stories to be misunderstood.
Dr. Alysia Harris, Pushcart nominated author of How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars to Stars

"This might be your introduction to Jasmine but it wont be the last time you read her."
Medium

Author Bio

Jasmine Mans is a Black American power, artist from Newark, New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison, with a B.A. in African American Studies. Her debut collection of poetry was published in 2012, (Chalk Outlines of Snow Angels). Mans is the resident power at the Newark Public Library. She was a member of the Strivers Row Collective.