Make the World New

by Lillian Allen, Ronald Cummings (Contributor)

Lillian Allen is one of the leading creative Black feminist voices in Canada. Her work has been foundational to the dub poetry movement, which swept across the Black diaspora in the 1980s, taking roots/routes in Kingston, Toronto, and London and offering exciting sounds of protest and a careful, detailed documenting of everyday life as political praxis.

Make the World New brings together some of the highlights of Lillian Allen's work in a single volume. It revisits her well-known verse from the celebrated collections Rhythm an’ Hardtimes, Women Do This Everyday, and Psychic Unrest, while also assembling new and uncollected poems. Allen's poetry is incisive in its narration of Black life and its call to create new and different futures. Her work highlights the need for radical intersectional change as a process of social transformation.

Allen’s afterword, “Tuning the Heart with Poetry,” includes the writer's reflections on her process and the social and cultural impact of the work. The introduction, by Ronald Cummings, engages with the duality of Lillian Allen's poetry in its written and spoken forms, and the give and take in committing poems to the page that “are not meant to lay still.” He also reflects on the dynamism of Allen's dub poetry, where, for example, her portrayal of breaths and breathings take on new resonance in the era of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

Published August 31, 2021

Reviews

[Abbygael · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Not everyone can fit in a round or square”


Really enjoyed this many poems hit hard!!

[mehreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

our english professor assigning us a book that HE wrote the introduction to is such a boss move, i love it. this is prob my fav poetry collection i’ve ever read and i’m glad this is the book that put me at this year's goodreads goal.

[Ellen]

Found this on display at the library and the cover enticed me

The thing about poetry is I don’t think I fully understand the depths of what is being presented to me but the words always conjure up an image and a scene in my mind which is my favourite part of poetry. I can’t understand what she’s fully saying but u can picture the scene and it’s presented so easily for me to imagine. But still instantly within the first couple lines I can picture the setting and that’s my favourite part of poetry. Hopefully one day I can reread this and appreciate it more.

My favourites were absolutely
- the poetry of things
- good womanhood
- I dream a redwood

Memorable quotes:
Truth and beauty seek expression through the soul

I smile to myself and think how did this happen. How did I get away with something so extraordinary

[erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely cover and lovely content. just a beautiful book, which varies from very very simple poems to those with such complex meanings that you need to reread. loved the themes discussed, and the language used.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed a lot of the poems especially ones set in Canada. But, I didn't love how she wrote in another language, that made the text feel confusing and hard to grasp. However, I know Allen did this on purpose to symbolize what non-English speakers feel reading English works. I even got this book signed by Lillian Allen! I wouldn't have read this book on my own (it was assigned in my Uni's English class). But I suppose that's not true since I'm reading it now after the course ended.

I think the first story almost turns people away from reading this book because it's the longest poem and also written heavily in Patois (I think). But, my review of 3 stars is simply I liked this book. I think it's great, it's just a little different from the poetry books I'm interested in. It was hard to stay interested in this book, but I think it's a great social commentary.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this collection of this poet's work. Lillian Allen has such an amazing grasp of the rhthym of language and an ability to infuse her poems with this sense of the beat of life. I love her insights into life, into fights for justice. I appreciate how Toronto is often in her poems. This collection contains several poems that speak specifically to our current times and particular covid as well as many of her earlier poems. a good collection

[Myranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important themes explored in different styles of poetry, and done in a way that makes me wish I had studied poetry better explain why this is so good instead of just knowing it is. However, to capture a little bit of that - I more than once took a picture of a snippet of a page to text to a friend, because I NEEDED her to see it, to feel it with me.

[elifsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first poetry book I could actually understand and genuinely enjoyed! I found it super interesting and engaging how it talked about more recent topics, especially ones that I lived through personally. The contrast between Patois and English poetry was really cool as well.

[Jay Semeniuk]

fo school

[Olivia Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational! Even better when read aloud ;)

[DW]

Stand out poem for me was Trust. Glad I bought the book.

[Marley Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for school but honestly loved these poems

[scarlett red]

dnf

[Isabela Antunes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful.
Goosebumps when you hear Allen recite her poems.

[Emilia Gianicos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan of poetry:/