5 ⭐️

I’ll say it once again, I’m a huge fan of poetry and I read and review collections as often as I can. But this one is different!

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have picked up this ebook. A powerful, chill-inducing, educational and emotional collection of Sonetas that take you on a journey to view the world through a perspective that needs to be seen.

Set up in four “books”, with endnotes giving the history about each and every sonata so there is room for understand and learning, this poetry is completely accessible to all readers. IWith hard hitting themes like slavery, modern racism, the war on Gaza, forgotten (or erased) history of minority stories, etc, I think this read is essential (though very heavy).

This poetry is unlike a lot of modern poetry I’ve read recently. It feels old and practiced yet fresh and brand new. It’s the kind of writing elicits visceral emotions, captures your attention and leaves you think long after. Not only the poetry itself but the endnotes and all that those contain were so well researched and thought out.

This came at the perfect time in my life, a time where it felt like all my shame, anger and pain I feel towards the current political climate felt like it was falling into a void. This validated, showed me beyond my own sight, and made me think.

I highly recommend this collection!

I'm not usually a poetry person so I'm not sure my review can do this book justice. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The subject matter of the poems was easy to understand but the end notes added substantial depth and insight into the author's thoughts. The social justice themes are very strongly woven throughout the book. I think it can bring further awareness to issues and also prompt introspection on the part of the reader. I also thoroughly enjoyed his interpretation of Scripture and how he tied it to current social justice issues. Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First, thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance read. It was surely appreciated. I was attracted to the book by its title (I love history!) and book cover.

So poetry is not my thing, but this collection of thematic sonnets, or sonetas, is my thing. Nigerian-American poet Olatinpo uses his sonetas to fuse traditional Western sonnets and West African rhythms and cadences to create a new beat to these poems. And the poems hit hard - they are direct and brutal and cut deep, at times deeply rooted in history, and at other times deeply rooted in the personal or the sacred. I especially appreciated that after the thematic sections, the author provides narrative footnotes for the various ideas, peoples, places, events that he references. I went down a few rabbit holes, such as the Church Committee Investigations into the US sanctioned killing of Congolese leader Lamumba in the 1960s, and recalled many a frustrating episode from the more recent past, such as the Clarence-Thomas and Anita Hill hearings. The current genocide of Palestinians by Israel, supported by the U.S., makes for harrowing poetry. Interwoven between the collection's parts are color illustrations, immediate and bold in their reds and blacks.

This is not a poetry collection I will forget. And, I hope, this is a poet that has a lot more to say.

Manifest Destiny is an unflinching and critical look at America's history through a black lens that is evocative and transcendent.

Olatinpo is steadily becoming one of my favorite poets. I find his poetry to be accessible, discarding flowery prose for the "soneta" that is direct and flows with a strong rhythmic beat. Split into four parts, Manifest Destiny, embarks on 250 years of history in a matter of 1 minute sonetas that offers a deeply holistic introspective into colonization, black liberation, white supremacy, and abolition.

Due to its well researched historical references, Manifest Destiny will be a great addition to our collective literary study. We will read Olatinpo's work for decades to come, finding new and old meaning to his words that are a mirror to our country's existence, and all the scorching truths that come with it.

If there is only one poetry book you read this year, let it be this one.