of f e r i n g s by kevanté ac cash
Press your ear to the queer conch shell of kevanté ac cash’s “o f f e r i n g s” to hear the Caribbean future. In poems that audaciously, exquisitely trample the rigidities of a sexual binary, cash strives to show speakers in possession of their full, fragmented selves: agonized by familial and societal trauma, yet cleaving to what makes them whole: found community spaces; the vivid beauty of the Bahamian landscape; the molten balm of Black women’s erotic love.
This work not only invites your witness; it demands it. These poems are spatial acrobats, creating urgent defiances across the blank page. They take up room, confront your gaze, saying, “we deserve all the world can give us, and love, too”.
Shivanee Ramlochan
Living at the crossroads of lovers, lineage aan (chosen) family, “o f f e r i n g s” is remedy on the page. here, each of kevanté’s poems are a sacrifice. of fear. shame. aan ego. a giving up which brings us as readers what we all long for - connection.
Tanicia Pratt
This is a collection of poems with a strong sense of spirit and honesty - to us and to self -as we move through the trinity of ‘for love’, ‘for self’, and ‘for community’. cash deals with their themes with a style that blends gentleness with tenacity. With Bahamian Creole English accompanying us through it all, we are carried through a conversation around place, identity, and tenderness. It’s beautiful. We become better from reading this.
Madelaine Kinsella
kevanté ac cash’s “o f f e r i n g s” is the debut pamphlet from one of the most exciting contemporary poets around. It’s also the first of our new batch of pamphlets for 2023/24.
A collection of poems looking at communities and how vital they are to the queer experience, “o f f e r i n g s” is an example of kevanté’s vivid and exciting poetry. The book comes in three parts: For Love, For Self, and For Community, with poems looking at sex, gender, family and legacies.
These poems are radical in their approach to form, with the poems playing with a sense of space on the page. In terms of content, they’re also radical - celebrating self love, confronting colonial repercussions head on, addressing the complexities of a religious upbringing, as well as what it is to be Black, non-binary and queer.
New to kevanté’s work? They’re a Bahamaian poet, essayist and bibliophile, who believes in priortising pleasure as an act of resistance. Based in Nassau, they spent time in Manchester, UK where they undertook their MFA in poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University.
fourteen poems
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