Best Books of 2023: TIME, Electric Literature
From Lincoln Centerโs inaugural poet-in-residence comes this unflinching collection that intricately mines the experience of being a Black woman in America. Boldly lyrical and fiercely honest, Mahogany L. Browneโs Chrome Valley offers an intricate portrait of Black womanhood in America. โWe praise their names / & the hands that write / Praise the mouth that speaks,โ she writes in tribute to those who came before her.
Browne captures a quintessential girlhood through the pleasures and pangs of young love: the thrill of skating hip to hip at the roller rink, the heat of holding hands in the dark, and, sometimes, the sting of a palm across the cheek. Friendship, too, comes with its own complex yearnings: โyou ainโt had freedom / โtil you climb on bus 62 / & head to the closest mall / for a good seat at the girl fight.โ
Reflections of Browneโs mother, Redbone, bolster the collection with moments of unwavering strength: โgive me my motherโs bone structure / & her gap tooth slaughter / give me her spineโRedbone got a spine for the world.โ Other moments explore the inherent anxieties shared among Black mothers, rhythmically intoning names like the tolling of a church bell: โBecause Kadiatou Diallo / Because Sybrina Fulton / Because Valeria Bell / Because Mamie Till.โ
The characters in Chrome Valley grapple with the legacies of inherited trauma but also revel in the beauty of the undaunted self-determination passed down from Black woman to Black woman. Transcendent and grounded, funny and furious, Chrome Valley brings depth to a movement, solidifying Mahogany L. Browne as one of the most significant poetic voices of our time.