EBOOK
About
Two-timer I am, infatuated with the country in which I love Yearning in corners, around bends. For the one I grew up in Shani Mootoo' s great-great-grandparents were brought to Trinidad as indentured laborers by the British. There is no record of where they were from in India or whether it was kidnapping, trickery, or false promises of wealth that took them to the Caribbean. In “Oh Witness Dey!” Mootoo expands the question of origins, from ancestry percentages and journey narratives, through memory, story, and lyric fragments. These vibrant poems transcend the tropes of colonial violence through saints and spices, rebellion and joy, to reimagine tensions and solidarities among various diasporas. They circumvent traditional conventions of style to find new routes toward understanding. They invite the reader to witness history, displacements and the legacies of our inheritance.
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Reviews
"In addition to an invigorating use of documentary poetics, Mootoo uses linguistic maximalism to propel and punctuate the text. One such example is a list…she repeats throughout the book, and it functions to draw connections between disparate peoples' experiences across the vast scope of the text."
melanie brannagan frederiksen
"A formidable, bold, and expansive collection of poetry that highlights Shani Mootoo's aesthetic and intellectual prowess. Rich in luminous detail, Oh Witness Dey! is an unflinching exploration of colonial histories, one that opens up space for supple, nuanced insights."
Linda Morra, Writer/Host