or, on being the other woman

by Simone White

In or, on being the other woman , Simone White considers the dynamics of contemporary black feminist life. Throughout this book-length poem, White writes through a hybrid of poetry, essay, personal narrative, and critical theory, attesting to the narrative complexities of writing and living as a black woman and artist. She considers black social life—from art and motherhood to trap music and love—as unspeakably troubling and reflects on the degree to which it strands and punishes black women. She also explores what constitutes sexual freedom and the rewards and dangers that come with it. White meditates on trap music and the ways artists such as Future and Meek Mill and the sonic waves of the drum machine convey desire and the black experience. Charting the pressures of ordinary black womanhood, White pushes the limits of language, showing how those limits can be the basis for new modes of expression.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published August 2, 2022

Reviews

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

'This is my country. What is the difference between the figure that destroys and the figure that breaks away'

(p56)

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complicated, beautiful. Appreciate her brain

[seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It is not my problem that it doesn’t call out to you” (36)

Me and Simone White share a troubled love for Gayl Jones. Everything else we might share is squarely up to me. If I don’t want to get hurt (and hurt) I can’t be in it. This collection bled all over the page in so many different registers and you can walk away thinking so many different things about life writing, whatever a poems function is, what it does to the “body”, music as a means (an always failed (conditional to black life) medium of dispossession), motherhood, sex, queerness, solitude (too pregnant a state to be rightly associated with desire [23]). Reading Simone White inspires me to have thoughts that trouble me. I could keep typing for the rest of the day because Simone Whites writing does that much to me. For better or worse. A perfect worsening.

[Ky Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t like it. I had to read this for my poetry class, and I didn’t like it. There was so much profanity and negative themes and scattered-ness that it made it a very unenjoyable read for me. While I admire that she was very raw and vulnerable, I think it was overkill at times. I genuinely feel like she has taken on such a victim mindset that it has clouded her vision of the world and herself. Maybe I’m not artistic enough or seeing her vision of poeticism, but I was not a fan. It did spark good thought processes under some occasions about the world and life.

[Avery Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simone White’s Or, on Being the Other Woman is a bold, genre, defying meditation on contemporary Black feminist life. Blending poetry, essay, and theory, White explores art, motherhood, sexuality, and desire with striking intellectual clarity and emotional depth. Her reflections on trap music and sonic culture add a rhythmic urgency to the work, while her interrogation of language reveals both its constraints and its transformative potential.

A powerful, incisive contribution to contemporary poetry and feminist thought, layered, challenging, and deeply resonant.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A varied meditation on intriguing themes of Black identity, feminism, motherhood, and relationships. A lot of these pieces (poems/essays) communicate complex ideas through language that is by turns academic and raw. I found myself needing to reread many of these and felt a bit out to sea with them. I wasn't always grasping the through line of individual pieces but I admire the language and pacing of many of these pieces.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simone White completely transforms the beauty of language and creates a world full of expression and truth. This revolutionary work of art follows the complexity of her Blackness, motherhood, and marriage (and divorce). Her word usage and the visible decoration on the page creates a dynamic understanding of her work. My dream is to be able to declare, What I have to say right now is that I love being a woman. I have loved coming to be her although it is not at all glamorous” (52).

[Harrison McNaughtan]

unsure about this one. spent most of the book confused, not grasping what was being said in many moments. Perhaps this speaks to the differences in my lived experiences and hers. Or perhaps just need to read it again.

I thought it was going to be about being the “other woman”, but the book is not centred on that at all (in any way detectable to me….)

[Nicole Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

this read like academic journaling

[Robyn]

Notables 2022 #124

[Smileitsjoy (JoyMelody) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am going ot have to re read this one. I enjoyed it but sometimes with collections like this, I have to re read it to fully grasp everything