Liviticus

Author: Kamau Brathwaite

Publisher: House of Nehesi Publishers (2017)

Typeset "performance" in Brathwaite's trademark Sycorax Video Style, Liviticus is “a monument to sorrow that cherishes our origins as we live our lives of Modern distraction,” according to Garrett Hongo, the Pulitzer-nominated USA author.

While the poetry could also be cast as a priestly testament, it has a chilling quality that fits Brathwaite’s description of the freshly minted Liviticus as, “The first poem of the Burning of the Body / and the Tearing of the Flesh.”

One reviewer connects to what has been identified elsewhere as the sustained “global importance” of the great Barbadian poet’s works. “Even as Kamau Brathwaite writes eloquently and heartbreakingly about his ‘Cultural Lynching,’ there remains the poet’s steadfast desire to connect to the pasts, presents, and futures of a seemingly indifferent world,” said Kelly Baker Josephs, editor of the literary platform sx salon.

Among the 20 and more books by Brathwaite that have maintained his international standing as a distinguished poet, scholar, and dramatist are The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy (1973), X/Self (1987), Middle Passages (1992), The Zea Mexican Diary (1994), Words Need Love Too (2000), Born to Slow Horses (2005), and Elegguas (2010).