Barnes & NobleChrome Valley - Poems by Mahogany L. Browne

From Lincoln Center's inaugural poet-in-residence comes this unflinching collection that intricately mines the experience of being a Black woman in America. Boldly lyrical and fiercely honest, Mahogany L. Browne's Chrome Valley offers an intricate portrait of Black womanhood in America. "We praise their names & the hands that write or Praise the mouth that speaks," she writes in tribute to those who came before her. Browne captures a quintessential girlhood through the pleasures and pangs of young love - the thrill of skating hip to hip at the roller rink, the heat of holding hands in the dark, and, sometimes, the sting of a palm across the cheek. Friendship, too, comes with its own complex yearnings - "you ain't had freedom, til you climb on bus 62, & head to the closest mall, for a good seat at the girl fight." Reflections of Browne's mother, Redbone, bolster the collection with moments of unwavering strength - "give me my mother's bone structure, & her gap tooth slaughter, give me her spine - Redbone got a spine for the world." Other moments explore the inherent anxieties shared among Black mothers, rhythmically intoning names like the tolling of a church bell - "Because Kadiatou Diallo, Because Sybrina Fulton, Because Valeria Bell, Because Mamie Till".