OH MY GOD y’all...these poems are 🔥! These poems are NOW AND NECESSARY! My heart literally ached when I read some of them. We stand with you!
✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 5/5

I wasn't sure what to expect when I discovered that this is a book of poems. Mans does a phenomenal job of providing poems that speak to various experiences of intersectionality. She tackles topics from Kanye West, to rape culture, to various elements of Black culture. I always appreciate coming across books that are unexpected, and this one did not disappoint.

The many points of view of the black female experience was what I enjoyed most about this collection of poetry. We were able to look at a several facets of the lives black women lead by speaking for the majority and the specific. There were a few stand out pieces as well as many necessary pieces. Together the collection was a well rounded look at the Black female perspective.

I thought that this collection was a bit uneven at times but ultimately a really impressive and powerful collection. Unfortunately we don't have a large budget for poetry at my institution but I would certainly recommend this title and be happy to purchase it if we get any requests. I found the longer poems to be the stronger ones in the collection generally speaking, and I feel some of the shorter pieces may have been cut to make a stronger and more streamlined book. That being said, a very strong collection.

Exceptional, powerful, poignant, this collection of poetry is hard hitting and visceral. normally I list my favorite poems in my reviews but every one of the poems in this book is excellent. Highly recommended

In this poetry collection, spoken-word artist Jasmine Mans pulls at all the threads of who she is as a Black queer woman from Newark, unravels herself, then puts herself back together via clear, precise language that brooks no argument. In the poem “Because I Am a Woman Now,” the speaker wants the comfort of a lie, but knows that womanhood means facing truth in new, vague ways. In “Momma Said Dyke at the Kitchen Table,” Mans decodes a mother’s reaction to a daughter’s coming out. Black Girl, Call Home moves from vignette to cultural criticism to ballad to eulogy to memoir with grace.

Black Girl, Call Home is raw and powerful poetry by spoken-word poet Jasmine Mans. Her words are unflinching, rhythmic, and so descriptive. It takes a gift to convey such heart, and this book hit me hard. Mans explores her truths of a being a daughter, being a woman in America, and being Black and queer.

I especially like her thought trees in the back of the book. It really pulled the ideas together for me - how one thought and poem can lead to exploring some other feeling or event. Her feelings hit close to her heart, whether she's musing about her mother's life, slave women being experimented on, or Kanye - it's all tied together in such an interesting way.

Poetry isn't my go-to genre, but this is powerful and I'll be recommending it to everyone!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Prepare yourself well for this powerful collection of poetry. In my quest to become the best ally I can be, Jasmine Mans’ poetry forced me to think and feel deeply. Her use of language, her voice! They combine to tell her story as a queer Black woman. Her struggles are immediate and real. When I get complacent in my privileged life, I will return to this poetry as a reminder to do more, be more, and support more. Thank you Ms. Mans

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review. .

Truly an incredible collection of poems on Blackness, feminism, queerness, and human connection. "Dear First Lady" made me sob. You know when you read poetry and you get that all-over-goosebumps sensation? I had this for almost the whole book! Jasmine Mans is one to watch.

Wow! If more poets had Jasmine's writing style, then I would definitely read more poetry books. I was pleasantly surprised with how easily her poetry flowed and how effective she is in getting her message and sentiments across to me as the reader. Not a lot of poetry works that way for me, so for this I'm truly thankful and impressed.

ahhhh, I loved these poems! they explore identity, race, sexuality, home, family, feminism, queerness, what it is to be a woman.... belonging and not belonging. and with such tenderness and awareness. if you love poetry about any of these topics, you don't want to miss it and I highly recommend buying and/or reading this book!

I loved Mans's storytelling and the whole book left me wanting more. I love when that happens -- the book ends and you feel like you could read twice as much as what is there because it's just that good. honestly though, it was just right - i'm just greedy. really excited to explore Mans's work further.

thanks to #NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for sharing a copy of this collection with me in exchange for an honest review.

This collection got deep into me and I am literally shaking. Each component, whether quote, prose, poem, or one-liner, is a seething brick piling onto your chest until you go to take a breath and can't.
Destined to become a classic.

Jasmine Mans is an exceptional poet, able to turn a stunning phrase AND convey a stunning truth simultaneously. This is a great introduction to poetry for folks who aren't poetically inclined and a hard examination of the current US situation of racial inequities.

Jasmine Mans's poetry is powerful, poignant, and timely. For those looking to educate themselves in the history and reality of the African American experience, this is a beautifully painful place to go. In particular, Mans tells stories of Black women who have been pushed down and forcefully forgotten in this country's past.

I found myself researching certain events and names as I read through the stark and beautiful poems. I was really affected by the story of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was arrested in a traffic stop and was found dead in jail days later. These are the kinds of stories that don't always penetrate mainstream media, and Mans aims to tell those stories in this book.

Highly recommend that you add to your list!

Powerful and visceral reflections on the author’s experiences as a Black, queer woman.

Nothing is off the table in Jasmine Mans’ collection: mother-daughter dynamics, raising black sons, sexism, violence against transwomen, rape, coming out to her mother, Kanye, Whitney, Halle, Henrietta Lacks, Sandra Bland, New Orleans, peoples’ lack of boundaries in their curiosity about lesbian relationships, falling in love, falling out of love...

Because a broken heart
feels like poisoned butterflies
taking their last flutters
right in the pit of your stomach

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and to NetGalley for the electronic ARC.

I love how this poetry collection. Touched on topics such race , feminisms , and queer identity or queer. These poems are for the Black girls that are lost. Some of my favorite poems were about how your mom had to put her life on hold to become YOUR mother. That hits home for me. I really loved this poem collection. It was a quick read as well.

didn’t go into this book with expectations. So many times lately I see hype for a poetry collection and am disappointed to find it lacking; either because the author concentrates too much on being “fake deep” than on truly finding a way to lay bare their emotions on the page or because they go so far to the left, creatively, they lose me altogether.

I tend to favor a balance of depth and simplicity. In other words, keep it hella real but hella simple.

Jasmine Mans does that and then some.

This collection is everything. From the first page, to the last, I was riveted: nodding in sisterhood to the parts which mimicked my own experiences—as a (once young) Black woman—to feeling infinite empathy for how difficult it was/is, at times, for her to walk in her own truth, despite the relationships she lost in the process.

There is nothing cutesy here. It’s all raw and unfiltered. Beautifully presented in sections which touch on pop culture (Kanye’s demise into whatever the hell Kanye has devolved into), love, mother-daughter relationships, and being a Black woman in a world where our minority status is something other than “other”.

This particular passage stuck with me:

“There are thousands of mentally ill Black women in unmarked graves right beneath us. There are girls documented as “women,” never considered “girls.” Please understand that parts of my body hold rage in their honor. There is no peace in these stories. Time does not breed peace for these stories.”


I mean ...damn.

And then this hit me, as the mother of a son:

““I am just afraid to raise a Black son.” Who will spend the rest of his life praying for a melody, or a melanin safe enough to scream in, a son who has to be a martyr for a war he never asked for.”


Sis. Jesus.

I could pull verse after verse and it would be be enough to convey the brilliance that is this collection.

It’ll be on my shelf once it releases, right alongside another fave, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”, and I encourage you to place it on your list too.

Jasmine Mans is my new favorite poetess. I can’t wait to see what she does next!

Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the advanced eGalley. Opinion is my own

**small spoilers ahead**
This is a powerful collection of poetry that (in my opinion as a Black woman) eloquently depicts the “common” Black American experience; especially pertaining to our Black boys/men and the poems that are specifically tackling issues faced in the Black community such as police violence, trauma, substance abuse, sexuality and sexual abuse. The word search of the missing girls broke my heart. Everything here is beautifully written and authentic. I encourage everyone to read this collection of poems.

This poetry collection is breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking in the way she puts words together and expresses deep emotions and feelings as if they were jotted down on a cocktail napkin. Short or long, in various formats sharing about love and family, or music and Black deaths, she goes everywhere but in focused, tenacious, powerful words.

It's jarring and amazing together and poems separately. I'm in particular love with some related to Michelle Obama and Serena Williams.

Poetry that describes the African-American experience for one woman. I love all poetry but this one particularly spoke to me.