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Gumbo Ya Ya
Gumbo Ya Ya, Aurielle Marie’s stunning debut, is a cauldron of hearty poems exploring race, gender, desire, and violence in the lives of Black gxrls, soaring against the backdrop of a contemporary South. These poems are loud, risky, and unapologetically rooted in the glory of Black gxrlhood. The collection opens with a heartrending indictment of injustice. What follows is a striking reimagination of the world, one where no Black gxrl dies “by the barrel of the law” or “for loving another Black gxrl.” Part familial archival, part map of Black resistance, Gumbo Ya Ya catalogs the wide gamut of Black life at its intersections, with punching cultural commentary and a poetic voice that holds tenderness and sharpness in tandem. It asks us to chew upon both the rich meat and the tough gristle, and in doing so we walk away more whole than we began and thoroughly satisfied.
119 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 21, 2021
18 people are currently reading
740 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 4, 2021
revelatory. so many special little flairs make this book both am incredible work of literature & stunning art object ? you can feel the poems bouncing off the page, the auditory quality, the way they look. idk I'm nonsensical but what I'm saying is there is no book like this book and all books should learn from this book.
July 8, 2023
I absolutely loved this collection--powerful, compelling, engaging. Everything you want poems to be.
The author is a master of all kinds of codeswitching from 1) language--she switches back and forth between what a white person might irritatingly call "proper English" and AAVE or Ebonics and what I think is a Creole-influenced dialect; 2) poetic form--she uses old traditional forms like ghazals, pantoums and sestinas, couplets, stanzas, there's even what I would call a concrete poem, as well as breaking form entirely, letting the words explode all over the page; 3) speaker--sometimes it seems the speaker is the author, exploring her autobiography, other times she explores other people's experiences (in one poem, the speaker is Erica Garner), or she borrows language and tone from previous poets (I highly recommend you explore the Notes section at the end and then reread those poems!).
This is poetry of transformation, maturation, and reclamation. The poet explores who she was, how she has changed, and who she's becoming. She faces the things she had no choice in (born Black into this America*, born female, born queer) as well as the times she got to decide who she wanted to be or what she was willing to do, to get through it. She refutes her mother's religion/God, yet has it so deeply ingrained in her that she can't help but use its language ("when two or more are gathered," for example) and redefines what faith could mean for someone in her position. An equal mix of strength and vulnerability, anger and love. I'm just wildly impressed and in awe.
*A great reminder that the real problem is "white insecurity" rather than supremacy.
My favorites were:
notes & acknowledgements (the 8 page poem that begins the collection! SO GOOD!)
portrait of rage with caution tape & bullhorns
gxrl gospel ii
& not by sight
some of the men we love are terrorists
unholy ghazal
yes, i am done with the god of white men
gxrl gospel iv: beast of a southern wild
independent
CPT or lessons in god-timing
like a freedom to strange to be conquered
thottin' on fountain drive
egungun (a gorgeous eulogy for her brother)
The author is a master of all kinds of codeswitching from 1) language--she switches back and forth between what a white person might irritatingly call "proper English" and AAVE or Ebonics and what I think is a Creole-influenced dialect; 2) poetic form--she uses old traditional forms like ghazals, pantoums and sestinas, couplets, stanzas, there's even what I would call a concrete poem, as well as breaking form entirely, letting the words explode all over the page; 3) speaker--sometimes it seems the speaker is the author, exploring her autobiography, other times she explores other people's experiences (in one poem, the speaker is Erica Garner), or she borrows language and tone from previous poets (I highly recommend you explore the Notes section at the end and then reread those poems!).
This is poetry of transformation, maturation, and reclamation. The poet explores who she was, how she has changed, and who she's becoming. She faces the things she had no choice in (born Black into this America*, born female, born queer) as well as the times she got to decide who she wanted to be or what she was willing to do, to get through it. She refutes her mother's religion/God, yet has it so deeply ingrained in her that she can't help but use its language ("when two or more are gathered," for example) and redefines what faith could mean for someone in her position. An equal mix of strength and vulnerability, anger and love. I'm just wildly impressed and in awe.
*A great reminder that the real problem is "white insecurity" rather than supremacy.
My favorites were:
notes & acknowledgements (the 8 page poem that begins the collection! SO GOOD!)
portrait of rage with caution tape & bullhorns
gxrl gospel ii
& not by sight
some of the men we love are terrorists
unholy ghazal
yes, i am done with the god of white men
gxrl gospel iv: beast of a southern wild
independent
CPT or lessons in god-timing
like a freedom to strange to be conquered
thottin' on fountain drive
egungun (a gorgeous eulogy for her brother)
May 29, 2021
I cannot wait for this book! I had the privilege of reading an earlier manuscript of Gumbo Ya Ya, and it was revelatory. It has so much of what makes great poetry so compelling. There is music in the words, incredible imagery, honest feeling, and on intimate knowledge of a place that only comes with deep, simmering love. Aurielle’s voice is not just powerful—it evolves with the work, in turns becoming vulnerable, doubting, affirmed.
I'm so glad Aurielle has finally found the right publisher for this book—and so happy for everyone who can now read Gumbo Ya Ya.
I'm so glad Aurielle has finally found the right publisher for this book—and so happy for everyone who can now read Gumbo Ya Ya.
April 18, 2023
read for school!
this was incredible. every page was so full of images and passion... this book felt alive. might be my favourite poetry collection ever, idk
this was incredible. every page was so full of images and passion... this book felt alive. might be my favourite poetry collection ever, idk
April 20, 2024
Gorgeous debut. It is a poetry book that serves as a recollection, a meditation and a revival.
November 4, 2021
n a moment of upheaval, this book is earth to sink into. And somehow, it is also air, that gusty wind that when you close your eyes you are sure for a moment you’re flying. Feet rooted, lungs wide, I’m calling for you to read this collection.
In an epigraph to the title poem, Aurielle Marie uses this quote from Madame Luisa Teish: “It is important, Sisters, that you understand what gumbo ya ya means…A cacophony of sound, like a swarm of bees, is moving in my direction.” Words buzz and tumble across each page as Aurielle Marie flexes across different poetic forms—from sonnets and ghazals to the layering of text that resembles a swarm. The energy lifts off the page and floats around you. I’m telling you sometimes I had to sit on the ground as I read this book to feel my body rooted because I was following the direction of the letters.
In “Gumbo Ya Ya,” she writes:
“My mother came here to cash/
This speech in for fresh vegetables. I was only allotted/
My time. I was instructed to say thank you. Gratitude is a tricky math…./I recognize that my work is all gristle, thank you America/ for stealing the meat. What’s the pronunciation of my name?”
In “psalm in which I demand a new name for my kin,” she asserts, “not sister, but salvation of noise.” Salvation like preservation, deliverance through and from and within a gxrlhood (author’s use of x) bound by societies pressures but boundless in voice, imagination, possibility and resonance. Aurielle Marie is here to split you open, coax out the inner child, inner joys and fears, let them run wild. By doing so, she asks for a reckoning, of what has been asked of those who share these identities, these faiths, who live within this country and hope for beyond.
I’m shaken and steadied. Grateful.
In an epigraph to the title poem, Aurielle Marie uses this quote from Madame Luisa Teish: “It is important, Sisters, that you understand what gumbo ya ya means…A cacophony of sound, like a swarm of bees, is moving in my direction.” Words buzz and tumble across each page as Aurielle Marie flexes across different poetic forms—from sonnets and ghazals to the layering of text that resembles a swarm. The energy lifts off the page and floats around you. I’m telling you sometimes I had to sit on the ground as I read this book to feel my body rooted because I was following the direction of the letters.
In “Gumbo Ya Ya,” she writes:
“My mother came here to cash/
This speech in for fresh vegetables. I was only allotted/
My time. I was instructed to say thank you. Gratitude is a tricky math…./I recognize that my work is all gristle, thank you America/ for stealing the meat. What’s the pronunciation of my name?”
In “psalm in which I demand a new name for my kin,” she asserts, “not sister, but salvation of noise.” Salvation like preservation, deliverance through and from and within a gxrlhood (author’s use of x) bound by societies pressures but boundless in voice, imagination, possibility and resonance. Aurielle Marie is here to split you open, coax out the inner child, inner joys and fears, let them run wild. By doing so, she asks for a reckoning, of what has been asked of those who share these identities, these faiths, who live within this country and hope for beyond.
I’m shaken and steadied. Grateful.
October 5, 2022
Excerpts:
reader, you’ve stolen my
meat, the marrow and tendon. i shape myself a body worthy
of your fear. i give myself hands, and build myself a mirror.
i give myself a jaw then splinter it. i prepare myself into a feast.
(from “in the event i become some unrecognizable beast”)
The first sounds he chewed into a word—Sorry. & I am / too, you God of ruin. God of dead children, and of the police. & oh, of my mother, too. A heinous God.
( from “unholy ghazal”)
yes/ i earned this country
i owe it nothing
with my infinite infant hand
i manipulated/ death sentences
into a single compound-complex one
(from “transhistorical for the x in my gxrls”)
reader, you’ve stolen my
meat, the marrow and tendon. i shape myself a body worthy
of your fear. i give myself hands, and build myself a mirror.
i give myself a jaw then splinter it. i prepare myself into a feast.
(from “in the event i become some unrecognizable beast”)
The first sounds he chewed into a word—Sorry. & I am / too, you God of ruin. God of dead children, and of the police. & oh, of my mother, too. A heinous God.
( from “unholy ghazal”)
yes/ i earned this country
i owe it nothing
with my infinite infant hand
i manipulated/ death sentences
into a single compound-complex one
(from “transhistorical for the x in my gxrls”)
August 14, 2022
A very raw, beautifully intense collection. My favorite was “portrait of rage with caution tape and bullhorns.”
June 13, 2022
This is the best poetry I’ve ever read and I know it’s going to be one I continuously come back to. So raw, unapologetic, and gorgeous. I’ve read “like a freedom too strange to be conquered” 5 times now and it’s still giving me chills.
February 28, 2022
A stunning and essential poetry collection
September 19, 2024
I feel like a lot of the poetry I have read in the last few years has been from queer authors of color. And of those this is the first by an American author and a southern one at that! That made it uniquely relatable to me as compared with some of the other works I've read. I still view all these works as a window into an experience of life that I will only ever see from the outside, but with Gumbo Ya Ya I felt a bit more like I was looking through a window into a house I had been into before.
I love poetry. I definitely read it in part because people are always weirdly impressed lol. Everyone is always like "I can't read Poetry, I don't understand it" that's that same as saying "I can't do yoga because I'm not flexible" Both of these things are nonsensical to me. I do yoga to improve my flexibility and strength. I read poetry to increase my understanding. Did I completely understand every poem in this collection? No, and every poem wasn't written for me. I can feel an emotional connection to something I don't understand. So read more poetry! People will think you're worldly, and you might actually become so.
"Be advised, these poems are anti-racist. Join them!" I didn't realize until I started this book that I had a signed copy ♥️ and mandate.
I had heard about this book somewhere before I saw it in A Cappella books and I bought it for the poem 'georgia me' but my favorite poem ended up being 'like a freedom too strange to be conquered'
"Not 'queer 'like 'gay.' 'Queer' like escaping definition. 'Queer' like some sort of fluidity and limitlessness at once. 'Queer' like a freedom too strange to be conquered. . ." Brandon Wint
Words:
"I acknowledge we are not allowed any singular monuments."
"I wanna feel most colored when my lover calls me baby"
"I feel most colored when I realize its dangerous | to explain myself | casually | I feel most colored | when someone make it clear ain't nothing about me relaxed | It ain't simple: I'm colored & proudly line my bed with women | which is perhaps the saddest | Blackest praise |"
"A white man told me my literacy was a failure/ and perhaps it was [his.]"
"What queer sorrow, this nostalgia" I love this line
"At one point, I was a brief globe of possibility & then my father got to me."
"God of ruin. God of dead children, and of the police."
"bi, as in where two or more are gathered in my name
bi, as in I cum in many languages, for several breeds of tongues"
"I been tryna find a way to tell my father his life wasn't no gospel, but saved me just the same."
"I recognize my work is all gristle, thank you, america for stealing the meat."
"The mouth is a scythe"
"Oh blood mud, ground made rust with the iron of us"
"Oh georgia me, fast gxrl in a too slow town
too heavy for the air. too free."
"Damn.
even here in my
own private truth I can't say yes I love"
"I wanna tell the world about me but I ain't met her yet."
"I wanna toil in a queerness that ain't
nobody punch line"
"we pray to a god that wants no sacrifice."
I love poetry. I definitely read it in part because people are always weirdly impressed lol. Everyone is always like "I can't read Poetry, I don't understand it" that's that same as saying "I can't do yoga because I'm not flexible" Both of these things are nonsensical to me. I do yoga to improve my flexibility and strength. I read poetry to increase my understanding. Did I completely understand every poem in this collection? No, and every poem wasn't written for me. I can feel an emotional connection to something I don't understand. So read more poetry! People will think you're worldly, and you might actually become so.
"Be advised, these poems are anti-racist. Join them!" I didn't realize until I started this book that I had a signed copy ♥️ and mandate.
I had heard about this book somewhere before I saw it in A Cappella books and I bought it for the poem 'georgia me' but my favorite poem ended up being 'like a freedom too strange to be conquered'
"Not 'queer 'like 'gay.' 'Queer' like escaping definition. 'Queer' like some sort of fluidity and limitlessness at once. 'Queer' like a freedom too strange to be conquered. . ." Brandon Wint
Words:
"I acknowledge we are not allowed any singular monuments."
"I wanna feel most colored when my lover calls me baby"
"I feel most colored when I realize its dangerous | to explain myself | casually | I feel most colored | when someone make it clear ain't nothing about me relaxed | It ain't simple: I'm colored & proudly line my bed with women | which is perhaps the saddest | Blackest praise |"
"A white man told me my literacy was a failure/ and perhaps it was [his.]"
"What queer sorrow, this nostalgia" I love this line
"At one point, I was a brief globe of possibility & then my father got to me."
"God of ruin. God of dead children, and of the police."
"bi, as in where two or more are gathered in my name
bi, as in I cum in many languages, for several breeds of tongues"
"I been tryna find a way to tell my father his life wasn't no gospel, but saved me just the same."
"I recognize my work is all gristle, thank you, america for stealing the meat."
"The mouth is a scythe"
"Oh blood mud, ground made rust with the iron of us"
"Oh georgia me, fast gxrl in a too slow town
too heavy for the air. too free."
"Damn.
even here in my
own private truth I can't say yes I love"
"I wanna tell the world about me but I ain't met her yet."
"I wanna toil in a queerness that ain't
nobody punch line"
"we pray to a god that wants no sacrifice."
September 12, 2022
2.5 stars
Whew, I struggled with this one! I was really excited about Aurielle Marie's 'Gumbo Ya Ya', and I really wanted to like it, but... it's just not for me.
I think it's more a 'it's not you, it's me' thing than a 'it's the work' thing, and I would still recommend lovers of poetry, especially unapologetically black poetry, to check it out. But, as far as collections go, it's pretty out there. Don't go into it thinking it'll be like anything else you've ever read.
Dealing with topics like police brutality, queerness and religion, Marie plays with style and typography often in 'Gumbo Ya Ya' and I think it would be best read in physical format. There's also a lot written about God that just did not sit right with my spirit, so if you're Christian, I'd give it a miss.
Overall, I think the girls who get it will get it, but I just... didn't.
Some of my stand-out lines:
✨ "...pursued poems as small acts of war / or love letters for a father..."
✨ "I write to you with a soft hand and gritted teeth."
✨ "Understand, reader, the world is seldom mine to build; but is indeed, here, ours."
✨ "I lost/ my mouth/ and grew/ an hourglass."
✨ "And sure, this could be a eulogy, but look at the life of it all..."
✨ "Who we got to fear? What glory ain't our name?
✨ "I'm so dark/ I'm the cosmos."
✨ "If I wasn't here/ if I had not survived this country / what would white women have to create themselves with?"
✨ "I am softening in the face of my suffering / I am softening in the face of my suffering / I am softening in the face of my suffering."
✨ "I love things unto their very bone..."
Whew, I struggled with this one! I was really excited about Aurielle Marie's 'Gumbo Ya Ya', and I really wanted to like it, but... it's just not for me.
I think it's more a 'it's not you, it's me' thing than a 'it's the work' thing, and I would still recommend lovers of poetry, especially unapologetically black poetry, to check it out. But, as far as collections go, it's pretty out there. Don't go into it thinking it'll be like anything else you've ever read.
Dealing with topics like police brutality, queerness and religion, Marie plays with style and typography often in 'Gumbo Ya Ya' and I think it would be best read in physical format. There's also a lot written about God that just did not sit right with my spirit, so if you're Christian, I'd give it a miss.
Overall, I think the girls who get it will get it, but I just... didn't.
Some of my stand-out lines:
✨ "...pursued poems as small acts of war / or love letters for a father..."
✨ "I write to you with a soft hand and gritted teeth."
✨ "Understand, reader, the world is seldom mine to build; but is indeed, here, ours."
✨ "I lost/ my mouth/ and grew/ an hourglass."
✨ "And sure, this could be a eulogy, but look at the life of it all..."
✨ "Who we got to fear? What glory ain't our name?
✨ "I'm so dark/ I'm the cosmos."
✨ "If I wasn't here/ if I had not survived this country / what would white women have to create themselves with?"
✨ "I am softening in the face of my suffering / I am softening in the face of my suffering / I am softening in the face of my suffering."
✨ "I love things unto their very bone..."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2024
I missed a performance by Aurielle Marie at Emory & Henry College a few months ago because I was sick with a reaction to the RSV vaccine, alas, but perhaps this is why I tried so hard to read the poems in Gumbo Ya Ya inside out, with great heart and an attempt at the mental acumen the poems deserve, trying to make up for missing her voice, my deep reading an apology to the cosmos.
The collection of poems is both tender and incisive, intimate and public, familiar and new. The shapings of the words, the lines, the spilling off the page, the shaping of phrases, the interplay of text by and on text—all of this draws you into the heart of good poetry, philosophy, a world view shaped by language, culture, identity, hope. There are some books that remind me why I loved teaching linguistics, and this is one. If I were still in the classroom, I would be sharing these poems to help students to see the depth of creole, of voice, of words, of images, of allusions, of truth. Perhaps you will read them to learn more about this poet and what she has done to share a world of experience. Aurielle Marie asks, in "in the event I become an unrecognizable beast," "am i not an altar?" Think about that.
I often like to read a book straight through. These poems needed me to read some and put the book down, to ponder, before missing it and picking it up to read more. I love a book that teaches me to read anew.
The collection of poems is both tender and incisive, intimate and public, familiar and new. The shapings of the words, the lines, the spilling off the page, the shaping of phrases, the interplay of text by and on text—all of this draws you into the heart of good poetry, philosophy, a world view shaped by language, culture, identity, hope. There are some books that remind me why I loved teaching linguistics, and this is one. If I were still in the classroom, I would be sharing these poems to help students to see the depth of creole, of voice, of words, of images, of allusions, of truth. Perhaps you will read them to learn more about this poet and what she has done to share a world of experience. Aurielle Marie asks, in "in the event I become an unrecognizable beast," "am i not an altar?" Think about that.
I often like to read a book straight through. These poems needed me to read some and put the book down, to ponder, before missing it and picking it up to read more. I love a book that teaches me to read anew.
April 30, 2022
A stunning debut indeed! This collection is like a munitions depot, full of incendiary devices with plenty of explosive power to knock one’s socks off, set hair afire, and blow one’s mind.
Favorite Poems:
“notes & acknowledgments”
“gxrl gospel i”
“war strategies for every hood”
“gxrl gospel ii”
“transhistorical for the x in my gxrls”
“father-son & holy”
“unholy ghazal”
“a poem of failures”
“gumbo ya ya”
“file”
Favorite Poems:
“notes & acknowledgments”
“gxrl gospel i”
“war strategies for every hood”
“gxrl gospel ii”
“transhistorical for the x in my gxrls”
“father-son & holy”
“unholy ghazal”
“a poem of failures”
“gumbo ya ya”
“file”
November 15, 2022
I acquired a free pdf download of Gumbo Ya Ya: Poems from oceanofpdf.com. This book of Poems is written by Aurielle Marie and published by The University of Pittsburg Press. It won the 2020 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Gumbo Ya Ya: Poems opens with a definition for Gumbo Ya Ya as originating from Creole old English meaning " A wild making noise from the mouths of loved ones, particularly in great joy or grief, so loud and unabashed that it overwhelms the senses." My senses were definitely overwhelmed as a I read such powerful words. Aurielle Marie touches on many topics, embarking on a though provoking journey that leaves you in awe. I thought the way the text was played with throughout the book added to the poetry. Words were printed overlapped and repeated creating and adding to the emotions of the poems. I can see this being used in high school.
December 31, 2022
I try to do my duty to the arts and read at least one solid book of poetry a year. Coming in to close out 2023, Aurielle Marie's Gumbo Ya Ya proved why it has won awards. When poetry manages to antagonize the accurate emotions of someone with only the slightest shared experiences, that is a sign the message is vibrating through the words... and that happened here.
February 17, 2023
Impactful poetry
Poetry collections aren't generally my thing, but this was so impactful ... somehow both tragic and lovely. An important read for anti-racist looking for more insight into the reality of the Black experience from the standpoint of a powerful Black, queer, female voice.
Poetry collections aren't generally my thing, but this was so impactful ... somehow both tragic and lovely. An important read for anti-racist looking for more insight into the reality of the Black experience from the standpoint of a powerful Black, queer, female voice.
December 30, 2022
An innovative and beautifully introspective text. It was gut wrenching at times and intersectional and intense at others. The language was gracefully sewn into a complex fabric that is culturally informed and important. I exist in awe of Aurielle Marie.
May 4, 2023
Probably the best book of poetry I’ve read this year. Marie tackles race, gender, sexuality, ancestors, state-sanctioned violence, and so many other themes. It’s the kind of work that punches you in the stomach from the force and beauty and anger. Read this.
August 1, 2023
<3
here are my fav poems:
no name in the street
gxrl gospel ii
the creek behind my childhood home was one of those small heavens
some of the men we love are terrorists
a poem of failures
like a freedom too strange to be conquered
here are my fav poems:
no name in the street
gxrl gospel ii
the creek behind my childhood home was one of those small heavens
some of the men we love are terrorists
a poem of failures
like a freedom too strange to be conquered
June 25, 2025
This book was kinda touch and go for me. I loveeeeeed how she played with form and the topics she tackled and her raw, radical honesty. But some of the poems kinda went over my head. Really great effort by a really dope author. Hope it resonates with whoever chooses to read it.
October 14, 2022
Loved the varying formats, aesthetically beautiful
November 26, 2022
This collection of poems is unapologetically extraordinary. A must read!
December 25, 2022
Aurielle–i love you. This book of poems is required reading.
June 25, 2023
Unlike any collection of poems I have ever read.
Wow.
Stunning.
Incredible.
Wow.
Stunning.
Incredible.
August 5, 2024
I love how this collection breaks forms and invents new ones. Almost every line in the collection is filled with a world inside itself. So freaking good.
January 14, 2025
After pecking away at the this volume for a year, I have to admit I’m an uncultured swine who just doesn’t get poetry. It’s not the book’s fault; it’s clearly me.
August 2, 2025
extremely captivated by the poems in this book. i will be studying the ones directed toward a person/s for a long time bc of just how solid the craft is in those poems. wow
Read
September 6, 2025It wasn’t bad, I just didn’t connect with it, so how cani I have an opinion on it?
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews