Poet Jasmine Mans Wants To Bridge The Gap Between Black Women And Girls With Her New Book

essence.com:

Black Girl Call Home. “Tell me who my mother was before she was my mother,” Mans says, quoting her work. “I think that’s a very important thing.

Often we see these matriarchs and we never consider that.”Mans’ words cloak those the world dismisses as “strong Black women,” in much-needed empathy. “All of those women, from my mother to my grandmother, to Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, we revere these people, but it’s important to bring them back to this most simple form: they are women,” Mans says. “They bleed, they got their periods, they cried, men left them.” Black Girl Call Home is the highly anticipatedfollow-up to Mans’ debut, Chalk Outlines of Snow Angels.