Blended— Poems

Description

Make no mistake, we are not ancient or lost.

We are very much here, though at great cost to our kin.

Daughters of the witches they burned?

No. Descendants of the children they refused to return.

Celebrated spoken-word artist Rebecca Thomas’s second poetry collection, a follow-up to the critically acclaimed I place you into the fire, explores the author’s various blended identities—as a Mi’kmaw woman, daughter, sister, auntie, wife, student, mentor, activist, poet, friend—as well as her blended family. From complex relationships with parents, navigating illness, memory, and residential school trauma, to rediscovering and rebuilding sibling bonds, to loves both platonic and romantic, Thomas gets right to the beating heart of it all.

Radiating outward, Blended also examines the systemic issues and sociocultural realities that underpin much of Thomas’s work. Whether she’s exposing the colonial damage caused by Pretendians, protesting government cuts to arts and culture, or celebrating the diverse identities and lived experiences of the People of the Dawn, Thomas’s voice is one of fearless wisdom and radical vulnerability, reminding us all of the irrepressible power of the spoken word.

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