Manorism

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Caravaggio - originally, unexpectedly - looms large: as a man who moved between spheres of exalted patronage and petty criminality; as a painter who, amid the elegant conventions of late Mannerism, forged his own style of visceral dark and light; and as an individual whose recognized genius was allowed to legitimate and excuse his violence. What Sode does brilliantly, though, is to articulate a sense of Black urban masculinity and anxiety for our historical moment: the fear of unwarranted confrontations with the police, the institutionalised/systemic racism that offers the grace of understanding and another chance to a white 'bad boy' like Caravaggio but which is withheld from generations of Black men and women, the vile abuse suffered by public Black figures like Diane Abbott to the everyday racism of being asked to pay for a meal before it's served when the white couple at the next table are not required to do the same. But rather than drifting off into a netherworld, he knows when to skilfully shift gear and to land us right back into the reality of young black men in England in the 21st Century. A collection of channeled Black urban anger poems offset by a more tender series mourning the death of a female relative. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

I agree with another reviewer, who mentioned that Sode's poetry perhaps works more effectively as oral performance.It’s vulnerability is a challenge, an encouragement, a reimagining, of what it means to be a “strong black man”. brand new poetry from Yọ̀mí Ṣódé, examining the lives of black british men and boys; contemporary masculinity deepened by family, misinterpreted by media, and complicated by the riches, and the costs, of belonging and inheritance. This collection is deeply insightful while still demonstrating the skill to read like a one on one conversation with Yomi himself. There is a love letter to his son, the sad end of Big Mummy and the rituals for the embalming of Okonkwo.

Alongside this political public poetry, is the series of grieving and mourning poems: emotive pieces on the mothers who learn that their young Black sons have been killed in police custody, and the narrator's own over-spilling feelings at the death of Big Mummy, made even more potent by the cultural prohibitions on Black men who cry. Yomi Ṣode’s debut collection Manorism explores family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging – it is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys. Yomi Sode's strong, insightful and brilliant words perfectly describe what it is to be black and British in 2023. I was sent this out of the blue by some lovely marketer at Penguin Books and thank you whoever that marketer was as I loved this collection of poetry/works by Yomi Ṣodi.He takes us along as he comments, empathises, reflects, mourns and ponders black male adolescence and manhood.

In his juxtapositions of paintings, black urban life and media , he makes us think of what poetry can be: that t he book itself is the poem, and each topic a stanza in a bigger epiphany . This is not a criticism but it seems to me that Sode's poetry works more effectively as oral, performance verse rather than textual, written-down verse - its complexity and power is in the emotion and ideas that are articulated with force and a directness that is about a strong voice and a pointed passion. The result is a thrillingly original book that charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of Black masculinity in Britain. Yomi Sode's Manorism has both its feet planted firmly on the ground - but as a collection, it spends much of its existence split between various opposing worlds of imagination: Black and white, past and present, peaceful and chaotic .The book is about families, society, being Black in Britain, being a cousin, a nephew, a son and the hope for the future that being a father brings.

Fierce, angry abrasive poems about colonialism, race and the black experience in Britain, interlaced its thoughts on Caravaggio and an extended and gorgeously personal musing on death, this is, at times hard reading. Yomi asks and, in a sense, answers in this collection, why it is easy for a white man to escape his wrongdoing, while a Black man is not given the same opportunity.

the poetry really conveys meaningful and personal experiences and explores themes of racism and black history really well. Yomi's acclaimed one-man show COAT toured nationally to sold-out audiences, including at the Brighton Festival, Roundhouse Camden and the Battersea Arts Centre. If the measure of a work of art or literature is the level of insight the reader gains into the artist’s world, then ‘Manorism’ succeeds supremely well. undoubtedly i’ll be reading more by yọ̀mí ṣódé in the future, his work is absolutely incredible, i could not look away, i read this in pretty much one go.