Mary Wants to Be a Superwoman

by Erica Lewis, Tyrone Williams (Introduction)

Being of African American, Native American, and white descent, erica lewis’ poems recount her friends and family’s—especially the women's—complex history with race, gender, and class in America, what it means to live with your own history, and how to move on. Each poem is framed by phrases from the lyrics of Stevie Wonder’s Motown records, but the poems themselves are homages to her women kin, friends, and other contemporary women poets. And the dominant motif is brokenness."By intertwining the public and the personal, Lewis's poems become a membrane through which pop culture permeates the most intimate experiences of selfhood." —Publisher’s Weekly

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2017

Reviews

[Marina Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tightropes the thin filament between, to use a musical metaphor, crossover potential and authentic blackness, to say nothing of its Cherokee undertones (lewis 5). I find her use of line breaks creating a musicality to the poetry that ties well with the fact that the poems come from songs.

In lewis’ project note she writes, “mary wants to be a superwoman uses music of a (once popular) pop artist that I grew up listening to. Each poem takes its title from a line of a Stevie Wonder song –the poems are not “about” the songs but, what is triggered when listening to or thinking about the music”. This style of using songs and writing what emotions happen when hearing them, reminded me of Aisha Sabatini Sloan and her collection of essays in Dreaming in Ramadi in Detroit. In that collection, Sloan has an essay about a Prince song and how when it was playing in the car when she told her father she was gay. She calls these essays about songs and situations that occurred during them; playlist essays/poems. lewis’ collection of poetry brought me back to Sloan’s work.

Line breaks serve an important function in setting the rhythm of a poem and this is significant in lewis’ work especially since her poems are about the feelings that happen when listing to a Stevie Wonder song. In her poem, “baby, everything is alright”, which comes from the song, uptight (everything’s alright), she ends with, “i’m fine thanks for asking / i’m an iron man / awakened by the clapping” (12). The way these line breaks flow and have a rhyme, shows how important line breaks are to create musicality to a poem. Another poem where we see the musicality from her line breaks is in “in hard time Mississippi” which comes from the song, living for the city. When lewis writes, “we chant for everything / middle class / philosophy / rattlesnakes / and stars / trying to hold our dreams as though / trying to hold our dreams / we never sold / these black hills / our throats / slit dry” (67), we can sense the rhythm where she has one-word lines. This action creates strength in the line and importance of the word. With this, we can hear the poem being spoken, gives the poem a beat and rhythm.

[Sunnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will readily admit that poetry is not my favorite genre, although I am a huge fan of Robert Frost. Erica Lewis has written several clever phrases but I was turned off by the total lack of punctuation and over-usage (in my humble opinion) of lowercase letters, especially in the first person. It was probably good for me to read these few pages, but there was nothing that stood out as extraordinary.

[Mikayla Elias · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some really moving pieces in this book, and I really enjoyed it overall. The melancholy arc of having one foot in the past and one in the future really resonated with me. The punctuation got a little confusing at times, but I think that was intentional. The reader got to interpret the phrasing as they wished and likely got a different message than another person did. Loved this book and will certainly pick up the others in the trilogy!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are lyrical and sometimes sad and sometimes joyous but almost always searing. All drawing on Stevie Wonder lyrics, so I’ve been singing Stevie to myself for a little under 48 hours.

[Akshaya Amarnath]

I like some of her words

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I read poetry books and I’m moved - this one didn’t really make me feel anything but it was nice to read - there were a few poems that were standout at the time, but a few days later and I can barely remember them.

Lovely in the moment - not a lasting effect. 2*’s

[Reilly Windsor-Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection did not speak to me as much as others I have read, I enjoyed the style and the content but emotionally there was just not a connection.