Description

An extraordinary Laurie Halse Anderson young poet traces the lives of her foremothers in West Tennessee from those enslaved centuries ago to her grandmother her mother and finally herself in this stunning debut celebrating Black girlhood and womanhood throughout American history

A masterpiece that beautifully captures the heartbreak that accompanies coming of age for Black girls becoming Black womenEvette Dionne author of Lifting as We Climb longlisted for the National Book Award

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Ms Magazine Kirkus Reviews

Walking Gentry Home tells the story of Alora Youngs ancestors from the unnamed women forgotten by the historical record but brought to life through Youngs imagination to Amy the first of Youngs foremothers to arrive in Tennessee buried in an unmarked grave unlike the white man who enslaved her and fathered her child through Youngs greatgrandmother Gentry unhappily married at fourteen to her own mother the teenage beauty queen rejected by her white neighbors down to Young in the present day as she leaves childhood behind and becomes a young woman

The lives of these girls and women come together to form a unique American epic in verse one that speaks of generational curses coming of age homes and small towns fleeting loves and lasting consequences and the brutal and everpresent legacy of slavery in our nations psyche Each poem is a story in verse and together they form a heartwrenching and inspiring family saga of girls and women connected through blood and history

Informed by archival research the last will and testament of an enslaver formal interviews family lore and even a DNA test Walking Gentry Home gives voice to those too often muted in America Black girls and women