Hybrida

by Tina Chang

In Hybrida, Tina Chang confronts the complexities of raising a mixed-race child during an era of political upheaval in the United States. She ruminates on the relationship between her son’s blackness and his safety, exploring the dangers of childhood in a post–Trayvon Martin era by invoking racialized roles in fairy tales.


Meditating on the lives of Michael Brown, Leiby Kletzky, and Noemi Álvarez Quillay—lost at the hands of individuals entrusted to protect them—Chang creates hybrid poetic forms that mirror her investigation of racial tensions. Hybrida is a twenty-first-century tale that is equal parts a mother’s love and her fury, an ambitious and revelatory exploration of identity.

Genres: Poetry, Race, Nonfiction, Asian American, 21st Century, African American, Aapi

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2019

About the author

Tina Chang was born in Oklahoma, in 1969, to Chinese immigrants, who had met in Montreal, where her mother was working as a nurse and her father was earning his doctorate in physics. Chang moved with her family to New York City when she was a year old. As a child, Chang and her brother were sent to live with family in Taiwan for two years before returning to New York. She earned a BA at SUNY-Binghamton and an MFA at Columbia University.

Chang is the author of the poetry collections Half-Lit Houses (2004) and Of Gods & Strangers (2011). Her work has been featured in the anthologies Asian American Poetry: THE NEXT GENERATION (2004) and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great (2009). She co-edited the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008).

The first woman to be named poet laureate of Brooklyn, New York, Chang discussed her appointment with the New York Times: “The ultimate goal is to break down the wall between people and poetry,” Chang noted. “Somewhere along the way, we have felt intimidated by it, or we have felt we have to be well-educated in order to be able to access it or walk into that world.”

She currently teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and is an international faculty member at the City University at Hong Kong

Reviews

[John Mauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Hybrida," Tina Chang has published a very timely and accomplished collection of poetry dealing with the anxiety of motherhood and the very real dangers faced by Black and mixed race children in a political climate with pervasive white nationalism and a judicial system that systematically discriminates against people of color and protects white men who commit horrendous acts of violence.

Tina Chang considers many of the recent cases of Black children being murdered or falsely accused of criminal activity for the simple act of living their lives.

As a mother of mixed race children, Chang fears for their safety and for their ability to live their lives and enjoy the freedoms that are guaranteed to them in principle but not necessarily in reality.

This is a powerful collection of poems and paints a brutal picture of the hypocrisy of our times and the need for real change to ensure that everyone can live their lives without the specters of race-based discrimination and brutality.

[aqilahreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book consists of poems of motherhood, of childhood, of race and difference, of being and loving & of the body. tina chang writes about her role as a mother of a mixed-race child - her young son and his blackness.

when i heard about this book, i was looking forward to read especially knowing that the topic revolves around blackness, which i would like to read more into. but i think there is just something missing which im not quite sure what it is omg. maybe the focus?? the writing?? the connection?? maybe if im into a more focused mood, i would try to reread this again. :')

[BookChampions · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a timely and urgent collection about raising a black boy in America. Tina Chang draws generously from her own life, considering the anxiety and hope she has for her biracial son (and daughter) in this toxic political landscape. Most of the poems here are written from the perspective of mothers—some Chang herself—but there is one, "Prophecy," written from the perspective of a son.

This was a powerful first read-through. As a father, there was a ton to connect with, and the first section was incredible. I read those poems several times. I know this is one I'll return to often and several of these poems will be ones I'll be sharing with friends and students.

[Delaney Eubanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't even.

[Ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partint de la pròpia experiència de ser mare d'un nen afro-asiàtic, Chang parla de la violència que han patit i pateixen els cossos racialitzats als Estats Units. I ho fa amb ira i amor i vehemència i subtilesa. Ho fa adoptant en cada poema la forma que necessita, i poques vegades m'havia trobat amb formes tan diferents en un mateix poemari però alhora tan ajustades.
Sempre em fascina quan, des d'un prisma tan personal, es pot crear una imatge tan global. Com l'ús de lo personal -les experiències més absolutament quotidianes i privades- poden explicar i reimaginar un història comuna i social. Ja sé que això és el que fa, o intenta fer, la majoria de poesia, però em meravella quan algú aconsegueix fer-ho tan bé.

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Chang's reflection on bi-raciality and blackness is both vitally important and harrowing in light of the current political landscape. To be fair to Chang, racial tensions are not new and she does not seem to entertain those notions as an Asian American, but the real threats to black children and hybridity being no real way out of that, have become increasingly impossible to deny. The central section of ekphrastic poetry reflecting on the work of Kehinde Wiley really enriches and expands Chang's concerns. Chang traces a lot of hostility to hybridity even within our language which hides a lot of racial and national myths. These political concerns enrich the poetry and Chang's emotional honesty keeps these poems from feeling didactic despite the heaviness of their topic.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.
Some of my favorite lines were:
"Where does God live if not in the shadows/of struggle..."
"What is a safe distance from the thoughts/that pursue us and what if the threat persists/despite our howling?"
"The soul can be a terrible spectrum of bones."
"If the soul is a living ember is it a fire that will not go out?"

My favorite poem: 4 Portraits

[Francescajemm · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I’m reading for The Sealey Challenge - one collection of poetry each day for the month of August. Tina Chang writes with grace, beauty, and clarity about the horrors of this world. I’m humbled by the reading of these poems.

[ReadBecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been feeling like poetry lately, so I pretty well picked up all the poetry collections in the new releases at the library to try and this was the one I absolutely knew I wanted get to, though I don't read a lot of poetry I really enjoyed this. I found the progression well laid out from more accessible to less toward the end, so for me it gave a chance to get into the cadence and style better picking up meaning as it went.

Chang muses on raising a biracial child, the reality of a world that will make them feel hurts in their life for who they are. Even as someone who is personally staunchly childfree, her framing the work from a lens of motherhood is undeniably powerful, it lends to deeply imparting the vulnerability of wanting to protect that child from a harsh world, drawing inspiration from real world new stories. The part of the collection that will stick with me most is early in the collection, a poem depicting a motherly gaze watching a toddler joyfully moving their body on one page, on the next page a brief quote from Michael Brown's mother regarding the degrading treatment of her son's body.

In the middle of the collection there are a couple poems inspired by artwork, one of them being a work by Kehinde Wiley, whose work I've been lucky enough to see in person as there was a collection done with/for our art museum after Ferguson. His pieces pair colourful gilded patterns, with historical famous works of art - depicted with modern black subjects. It is a perfect pick for the theme of hybrids, the purposeful and beautiful meshing of things that the past held separate.

Throughout the section headings explores word etymology, eventually coming to a piece that pulls those together, pondering on the terms mongrel and bitch. Topically circling around Laika the astronaut dog, while at the same time considering the power and duality the words have, especially when it comes to mothers.

[Thuanhnguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Chang writes so beautifully. Each of these poems is a surprise. There's art, there's astronomy and structural differences. And the way she writes about her son? Her love for him, her concern for him in this racist world? It's stunning.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Chang's poems explore race and compassion in our current political climate. Each poem made me think and feel deeplya-- a lump in my throat. Stunning!

[Pinky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hybrid poems written by the mother of a mixed-race son about her fears for him and the world he has to live in.

[Andy Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book features narratives of anxiety. The book deals with the author's resentment toward and feeling of loss for her parents, along with fears for her biracial children. Some of the anxiety is explicit (with references to the police killing of Michael Brown), while some emerges organically from the series of images and thoughts in these dream-like observations. Within her concern for family and personal angst, recurring themes jut out: racism, war, and demogoguery, with explorations also of refugees and the degradation of women. This is not all polemic, however; Chang also looks at the consequences of loss: "I could say I was lost or free."

A few prose essays are interspersed with the poems, sometimes breaking out into poetic passages ("my father the ghost, sat at the kitchen table"). Some poems are a form of zuihitsu, an ancient and now revived form; at least one poem is in the Arabic form of regular verses called a ghazal. Her style comes together most perfectly, I think, in the short poem "At the End of the Road Was a Sun."

[Ollie Ander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every poem in this collection is about more than it is, and I think that got a little tiring for me, besides that some of the imagery was too obscure to actually visualize in many of the metaphorical poems. There were some of the poems that ended and I had the "I don't know where I started" vibe. Some of the descriptive phrases were noticeably frequent which wasn't as enjoyable as it can be in a collection.

There were a lot of ongoing themes about motherhood, race, and heritage. As much as I really enjoyed some of them, like the poem exploring the unlikely beauty of her son's life being a culmination of the parents' very different heritages, going from such specific instances to generalizations about race as a whole didn't flow into one another well. For opening so strongly as a memoirish mother's story, by the end I'd forgotten I was concerned about his life specifically because it grew so apart from that (and not, imo, in a gradual narrative changing way as in we're all bigger than ourselves).

2/5 Stars.

[Book Minded Mag · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful collection of poetry by Tina Chang. I took a long time to read this book because I wanted to make sure I absorbed every word. Tina Chang writes not just from the heart, but from her very soul. Her poetry is full of worry for her children, who have to navigate this world as black children. Her concern comes through, but also the fierce, primal love of a mother who will do anything to protect her children. The poem that is the embodiment of that love is “Creation Myth,” a poem that spans several pages and is written in different styles. It lays her feelings out for all to see, giving us not a glimpse but a complete view into what it means to love your child even though you won’t be able to protect him or her (or they) all of the time. That the world will get to them eventually and that all you can do is hope that you have prepared that child for whatever comes.

Tina Chang is a poet whose work I will keep on my radar as my desire to read more poetry continues to grow.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

He, Pronoun

Everywhere I look I see him,
I have a right to fear for him,

though I have no right to claim his color.
His blackness is his to own and what will

my mouth say of that sweetness.
Am I colorless worn like a veil, invisible

but present. He is a word grown upright
and some claim he is journalism, media

around me, so much light filtered through,
so much video of him, I shut it out,

the body shot through and I will not let
him out the door. Sideways, I view

a lens. If you could see the green field,
the cows with their maternal gazes, instinct

at their hooves, leaning into calves, edging in.
They come closer. When there is no more color,

I turn an old-fashioned knob of the TV,
black-and-white frames, where I view a hose

releasing water, dogs bark at the leash of time.
My son turns off the television believing it’s an ancient

toy. He sits on my lap and we lean against a wall,
he and I in the room. We watch the door.

[Casie G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything mentioned in this collection of poems is so recent. It isn't easy being a person of color in america recently, and it's especially hard when someone is of mixed race. These poems explore the difficulties of raising a child who will have to face so much discrimination just by existing. It makes a mother feel helpless and also makes you want to hold your children a little tighter. It's difficult to watch the news without having to worry about your child. The worry portrayed here makes you feel breathless.

I liked the rhythm of the poems and the set up. It was easy to follow and when you really get into reading them, you can almost picture yourself as her. I recommend this to mothers who see the state of the world and feel helpless. This poetry collection makes you not feel alone.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it to be moved by her experience of being a mother to a black-boy in the age of Trayvon Martin, and those expectations were met. But I was also moved by her inside-out fairy tale poems about motherhood, race, identity, immigration, and politics.
I was haunted, however, by her pages about Laika, the first space-dog. Chang's desire to claim her, connect with this dog who was shot into the stars by the soviets (and the pages of poetry are sprinkled with stars in the book). For years Laika was romanticized by the Soviet, they said she died painlessly about a week after launch. We now know that Laika died within hours of launch from panic and overheading. Laika means bark in English... the poem ends, "but you cannot hear the howl"

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book objectively deserves a higher rating because the poetry is good but this is my stance for now, would probably change if I reread
interesting thoughts here on family and mixed-race identity. I like that she didn't try to write about experiences that were not her own. The big question mark to me here was the rest of her family- why focus on one son? What about her daughter? Husband?
I think I generally like poetry that is a little more grounded in reality instead of experimentation, did have to work to understand a good portion of it. Wish I read the notes page first because it made a lot of the poems much clearer. There were definitely salient parts though-- worth a read

[Nuha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first fell in love with Tina Chang's work when I heard her recite "Fury" for an event with the AAWW. The poignant message of the poem - "How can we hold space for love if we don't hold space for anger?" has stuck with me throughout the political upheaval of 2020 and 2021. Being angry & creating space for anger is not an antithesis of love but perhaps it means that we care enough to be angry, to care even.

Hybrida is, as the title suggests, a hybrid work. Chang plays with formal structure as she juxtaposes poetry & art & police reports. The poems address both her children as she rewrites fairytales into the modern era, and the public. Stepping into this hybrid world, Chang asks us to hold space, to hold space for Black children, Black art, biracial mothers, overpolicing and the grief & joy of it all. A stunning piece of work.

[Niniane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first poem was heartfelt about worrying for her biracial child and not being able to fully counsel him because she hasn't gone through those experiences with dangerous cops.

But then it is a lot of poems written from the imagined perspective of Trayvon Martin and the cop. Those weren't compelling because she is doing that very thing of going outside her lived experience.

There were poems about her parents but they were so flowery that I couldn't figure out what actually happened. Her mom gave up religion?

If the whole collection were along the lines of the first poem, it would be great.

[Bonisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 on first read. Can be opaque at times.

3.5 on second read, still.

The most striking pieces, IMO, are "At the End of the Road was a Sun" and "Devil." I also like sections 4 and 9 of "Creation Myth," "Mankind is so Fallible," "Hybrida: A Zuihitsu," "Long Shadow" (minus the last 2 sentences), and most of "Bitch." (Re: "Bitch" -- I question what the stars on each page contribute to the work, and I wish the words "of survival" didn't get their own blank page.)

The poems that didn't land for me were bogged down by imagery that didn't quite align. But, even those poems are interesting to read aloud.

[Meg Tuite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fierce, necessary language fires through this collection.
Here are some quotes:
"The siren wails and reminds me the city
is a living creature who waits outside
the periphery. Panting."
"My face is the only heirloom, fixed in gold. The features
which swirl down a drain. I come from that too, not sewage
nor explosion but a phantom lock, a combination set
to be opened. A slap in the dark. A gun goes off."
"I come from the last funeral, my stepfather
in a casket with all the living flowers, his hands sewn
together in death though I remember in life they raged
punctuating each hungry vowel. How the orchids
overwhelmed his body, his poisonous face."

DEEP WATERS HERE! LOVE!

[Chris Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this poetry aloud gave me chills. "The Devil" in particular still strikes me.

With poetry, I feel it's difficult for a casual reader to grasp the nuances and a portion of the essence gets lost in translation. But that being said, when the essence finds its way back, it stings, it cools, and it hurts. There's a rawness to these beautiful words that hit hard when you allow yourself to hear them.

I give this a recommended read.

[CB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the poems felt dry and impersonal like a space to stretch out all the smart TED talk-y thoughts she had. And others were so obtuse and difficult to read. Maybe the imagery is meaningful to the poet, but for me it was at once trying to do too much and doing nothing for me. I can totally get that some people will connect to this more than I did. A few of the poems I liked. Overall it was just a slog.

[amanda abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tina Chang’s title is a perfect descriptor for what is found inside. Part essay, part fairy tale, part ekphrasis, part dream, part social justice, part form, part narrative. There aren’t a ton of lines that stood out to me in their own right, and yet the craft stringing these words together was impeccable. It may be a hybrid, but that hybrid is cohesive. This is definitely one I will have to reread, and I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. The hard thing about poetry is that you can recognize the poet as immensely talented and their collection as well put together, but if you can’t connect with it, it always feels lacking. I enjoyed reading her Notes afterwards to get a better sense of how real events inspired these, but overall I did struggle to connect. Perhaps I’m only destined to enjoy ‘Instagram poetry’ after all...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

CN: all kinds of violence, death of a parent

The poems I understood I mostly liked. The ones I didn't I couldn't tell whether it was a problem with me, a problem with the poems, or simply a reflection of them not being written to speak to me. I suspect it's all just a little too abstract for my tastes.

[Elizabeth StClair · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good work of poems, with plenty of real world connections, but for some reason I could not stay focused on the words. I plan to read this poet again though! When I'm in a more focused mood.

[Salty Swift · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love letter and a precautionary tale from a mother to her black son, growing up in the US amongst the hatred, racism, and morbid pigs. This made me angry, hopeless and cry. If you're not moved by these poems and brief tales, you might as well quit on the human race....