dayliGht: Poems

(Paperback)

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Growing up, Roya Marsh was considered "tomboy passing." With an affinity for baggy clothes, cornrows, and bandannas, she came of age in an era when the wide spectrum of gender and sexuality was rarely acknowledged or discussed. She knew she was "different," her family knew she was "different," but anything outside of heteronorm was either disregarded or disparaged. In this stunning debut, written to protest an absence of representation, Marsh recalls her early life and the attendant torments of a queer Black woman coming of age in America: I've been baptized twice / Washed over / Still gay / No choice / No Christian / No cure / Girl / No daddy / Daughter / No dresses / Jamaican / No accent / Girlfriend / No boyfriend / Won't tell a lie / But I'm always swallowing truth - From "in broad daylight black bipolar girls look grimey" In lush, powerful, and vulnerable verses, dayliGht unpacks traumas to unearth truths, revealing a deep well of resilience, a cutting sense of irony, and an astonishing fresh talent. A dazzling debut from a necessary new voice, Marsh's dayliGht is at once a clarion call for Black femme voices and a corrective to broken notions of sexuality and race.

Reviews

[dayliGht] brings to life the complexities of coming of age in a heteronormative, white supremacist, gender-policing society. It is potent and sharp, abundant and grand. This one will grab you, and it will stay in your body long after you're done reading.
--SARAH NEILSON, Literary Hub

"dayliGht has a singular, potent, and persistent swagger--like if KRS-One had written Stone Butch Blues. In this tear-jerkingly matter-of-fact collection, Roya Marsh doesn't propose an escape of past traumas but rather, sits in the cut, ponders, and comes back with her lyrical gun cocked, ready to even some shit up. This butch is so done with your bullshit, and this is her book of receipts. dayliGht is a breakthrough masterpiece. I can't stop crying, and I won't stop crying. Get. Into. It."
--BRONTEZ PURNELL, 2018 Whiting Award winner and author of Since I Laid My Burden Down

"Saturated with wit, wonder, and heartbreak, dayliGht is an intimate collection that is relentless in its examination of the intersections of womanhood, queerness, and Blackness. A brilliant debut book of poems."
--ELIZABETH ACEVEDO, National Book Award-winning author of The Poet X

"Roya Marsh's debut is at turns gripping, angry, and joyful--and always powerful. I love these poems for the small wonders I find in each one. In comparing her mother's cancer to gentrification, for example, she reveals much about both. These poems are crafted out of a love for self and for the selves that might grow when given a chance to heal. dayliGht is a revelation."
--JOS OLIVAREZ, author of the PEN/Jean Stein Award-nominated poetry collection Citizen Illegal

"Polyphonic and rhythmically dense, Roya Marsh's poetry is uninhibited as she traverses her interior life and infuses the otherwise mundane settings with peril, delight, and wonder. dayliGht is a read that cannot be swallowed whole but must be taken in measures to appreciate how each poem births another with a difficult yet admirable strength."
--MORGAN JERKINS, New York Times-bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing

Author Bio

A Bronx, New York, native, Roya Marsh is a nationally-ranked poet/performer/educator/activist. She is the Poet in Residence at Urban Word NYC and works feverishly toward LGBTQIA justice and dismantling white supremacy. Marsh's work has been featured in Poetry, Flypaper Magazine, Frontier Poetry, Village Voice, Nylon, The Huffington Post, Button Poetry, Def Jam's All Def Digital, Lexus Verses and Flow, NBC, BET, and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic.