Ama Codjoe. Bluest Nude
Milkweed Books, 112 pages, September 2022
On the cover of Ama Codjoe’s highly anticipated debut collection, Bluest Nude, a Simone Leigh sculpture stands—an entirely white, 5-foot glazed stoneware shaped into the likeness of a female figure. The torso is missing its head and arms; the lower half is shaped like a hand bell one would ring, or, perhaps more likely, those elephantine hoop skirts fashionable among the European elite during various periods of the colonial era. After all, the sculpture is titled “Martinique,” a reference to Empress Joséphine, the first wife of French monarch Napoleon Bonaparte. The statue of her on the Caribbean island of Martinique stands headless, decapitated by protestors in 1991.
Leigh’s piece is apt for a collection that archives the imposition of colonial history and its…
You're reading a preview of
The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, May/June 2023