Homer challenges the notion of family by forcing the reader to examine how race, race performance, and colorism impact motherhood immediately and from generation to generation. In a world where race and color often determine treatment, the home should be sanctuary, but often is not.
Homer's poems question the construction of racial identity and how familial love can both challenge and bolster that construction. Her poems range from the intimate details of motherhood to the universal experiences of parenting; the dynamics of multiracial families to parenting black children; and the ingrained social hierarchy which places the black mother at the bottom.
Homer forces us to reckon with the truth that no one--not even the mother--is unbiased.
Praise
"Pecking Order awakens in me a desire to remember fear at its most immense: when it spills from our desire to keep close those we love, even as they grow out from us and into danger. Yes, it is a stunning portrayal of where the interior of motherhood and the nuance of race intersect. But, more than anything, Homer is a poet of sharp articulation of fear, love, and the small hums of comfort in between. More than simply poems, Pecking Order is also about the exhausting journey of being seen, black and in public. In grocery stores, on vacation, in rooms not your own. This is a stellar collection, one that speaks to every edge of an experience and echoes out, leaving a harsh and beautiful longing in its wake. "
- Hanif WillisAbdurraqib, author of The Crown Ain't Worth Much
Homer challenges the notion of family by forcing the reader to examine how race, race performance, and colorism impact motherhood immediately and from generation to generation. In a world where race and color often determine treatment, the home should be sanctuary, but often is not.
Homer's poems question the construction of racial identity and how familial love can both challenge and bolster that construction. Her poems range from the intimate details of motherhood to the universal experiences of parenting; the dynamics of multiracial families to parenting black children; and the ingrained social hierarchy which places the black mother at the bottom.
Homer forces us to reckon with the truth that no one--not even the mother--is unbiased.
Praise
"Pecking Order awakens in me a desire to remember fear at its most immense: when it spills from our desire to keep close those we love, even as they grow out from us and into danger. Yes, it is a stunning portrayal of where the interior of motherhood and the nuance of race intersect. But, more than anything, Homer is a poet of sharp articulation of fear, love, and the small hums of comfort in between. More than simply poems, Pecking Order is also about the exhausting journey of being seen, black and in public. In grocery stores, on vacation, in rooms not your own. This is a stellar collection, one that speaks to every edge of an experience and echoes out, leaving a harsh and beautiful longing in its wake. "
- Hanif WillisAbdurraqib, author of The Crown Ain't Worth Much
Paperback
$18.00