i shimmer sometimes, too

Porsha Olayiwola, 2019.

These poems dip their hands into the fabric of black womanhood and revel in it. Shimmer establishes Olayiwola firmly in the lineage of black queer poetics, celebrating the work done by generations of poets from Audre Lorde to Danez Smith.

This is a book of gentle breaking and inventive reconstruction. A book of self  and community-care―the pursuit of building a world that will not only keep you alive but keep you joyful.

Praise for i shimmer sometimes, too

In Porsha Olayiwola’s capable hands, language becomes elastic, becomes kaleidoscopic. i shimmer sometimes, too is cinematic, is magic, and graceful education in the possibilities of form.

- Safia Elillo, author of The January Children

In language that is both pungent and poignant, Porsha Olayiwola plumbs a dispora of resilience, rich in ringshouts and inner-city blues chanted to the sky. i shimmer sometimes, too is luminous indeed.

- Jabari Asim, author of We Can’t Breathe

Each poem is a lesson, a story, a mirror that Olayiwola holds up to ensure we pay attention to that which we may have overlooked.

- Clint Smith, author of Counting Descent

Awards