The Shining Material

Poetry. African American Studies. In THE SHINING MATERIAL, Aisha Sasha John is a hostess; welcome to her house. Inside there is a party, a prayer, a painting that puts its fingers in your mouth--let it: in THE SHINING MATERIAL witness Aisha Sasha John braid self-portraiture, ekphrasis, and her own brand of psalm to create a collection of poems that is a tonic: dizzying in its open-mouthed, symphonic charge. These poems stage intimate encounters as they work against the language of the banal. Dancing across, between and at the interstices of the self, no poem is a single statement: they all recognize language as a perpetual subject of inquiry. THE SHINING MATERIAL is an opportunity to trace a fresh sensibility that will continue and make the work of this young innovative woman writer a powerful force in avant-garde writing around the world.