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gossypiin
This harvest of poems is inspired by the plant medicine latent in Gossypium Herbeceum, or Cotton Root Bark, which was used by enslaved Black women to induce labor, cure reproductive ailments and end unwanted pregnancies. Through an arrangement of stories, secrets and memories experienced, read, heard, reimagined and remixed, gossypiin reckons with a peculiar yet commonplace inheritance of violation, survival and self-possession. In this way, Ra Malika Imhotep invites us to lean in and listen good as the text interrupts the narrative silence around sexual harm, sickness, and the marks they make on black femme subjectivity.
Within these pages, the poet is joined by a “sticky trickster-self” named Lil Cotton Flower who tells of their own origins and endings in the Black vernacular traditions of the griot and the gossip. Interspersed throughout the collection, Black feminist wisdoms and warnings meld with the poets own yearnings and Lil Cotton Flower’s tall tales.
Gossypiin is an offering towards the holding and healing of Black beings that exceed the confines of their own bodies.
Within these pages, the poet is joined by a “sticky trickster-self” named Lil Cotton Flower who tells of their own origins and endings in the Black vernacular traditions of the griot and the gossip. Interspersed throughout the collection, Black feminist wisdoms and warnings meld with the poets own yearnings and Lil Cotton Flower’s tall tales.
Gossypiin is an offering towards the holding and healing of Black beings that exceed the confines of their own bodies.
114 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 12, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 20, 2025
"Stories Come and Stories Go
Listen to the Words and Help Them Grow
It Matters Not if the Stories are True
Only What
They Mean to You
'Cause Stories Come and Stories Go
Away We Go!"
..
"gossypiin is a prayer for Black trans, queer, sick, disabled, Southern, and giri-born' kin everywhere."
—Alan Pelaez-Lopez
..
When I read a collection of poems, I still feel like I'm reading this intimate, private thing and I'm not supposed to be prying. This felt like that-first because that's just how poetry feels (on the outside looking in) and second, because I'm white. But I could NOT look away from this. It is so interesting with such a strong sense of voice. My favorite is:
"One of Four Women Walking Down Peachtree
Street Licking Herself"
It just made me smile. The poem is so provocative.
.
"and Southern as I am
I like my peaches unripe like when the flesh resist my teeth a lil bit
or at least that's what I thought I liked, till one day I bit hard and felt the sweet of it slip through my fingers right down my arm"
.
The "Gratitude" section at the end made me so emotional. And I'm thankful I buddy-read “Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston with a bookstagram buddy last year because I got a lot of the references and quotes and nods to her legacy
Listen to the Words and Help Them Grow
It Matters Not if the Stories are True
Only What
They Mean to You
'Cause Stories Come and Stories Go
Away We Go!"
..
"gossypiin is a prayer for Black trans, queer, sick, disabled, Southern, and giri-born' kin everywhere."
—Alan Pelaez-Lopez
..
When I read a collection of poems, I still feel like I'm reading this intimate, private thing and I'm not supposed to be prying. This felt like that-first because that's just how poetry feels (on the outside looking in) and second, because I'm white. But I could NOT look away from this. It is so interesting with such a strong sense of voice. My favorite is:
"One of Four Women Walking Down Peachtree
Street Licking Herself"
It just made me smile. The poem is so provocative.
.
"and Southern as I am
I like my peaches unripe like when the flesh resist my teeth a lil bit
or at least that's what I thought I liked, till one day I bit hard and felt the sweet of it slip through my fingers right down my arm"
.
The "Gratitude" section at the end made me so emotional. And I'm thankful I buddy-read “Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston with a bookstagram buddy last year because I got a lot of the references and quotes and nods to her legacy
October 20, 2024
“all that is black and whole at the bottom of the sea where we make our residence time and time again. please don’t call it a grave, say resting place. don’t lip death just open mouth to exhale ‘transition’
let me be still, and taste a peace kept from our kind.”
let me be still, and taste a peace kept from our kind.”
June 25, 2025
I got a running list of folks with PhDs who I wanna one day collaborate with and Ra Malika Imhotep is at the top of the list. I’m so inspired by her cultural work, archival work and now by her poetry. A really raw anthology that I enjoyed. This one is for the poetry fans!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews