Books

This collection by prize-winning poet Akua Lezli Hope explores passages of music and experience, as a Black woman in America playing with and through the complexities of different keys of life. The poems in EMBOUCHURE emphasize the wonder, joy, and love found at the close of the 20th century while also examining the bittersweet aspects of sex, race, and identity.

The secular and the spiritual meet in EMBOUCHURE, using the lens of jazz to look at and reveal the sensual and the sexual with a storytelling lyricism. These works sing through denial toward affirmation, celebrating black women and men, reflecting on difficulties and calling for strength. A fresh talent emerges vigorous and compelling in these musical, joyous, and radiant poems that express how life sounds and how life feels. Hope's poetry lifts our eyes to the horizon and offers fresh images and new realms in which we may live.
 

"There is a sacred power to these words. There is a sustained lyricism, a sureness of craft and an uncanny concentration of ambitious dazzling images..," said Robert Fleming, award-winning journalist, novelist and critic.

The publication of EMBOUCHURE is accompanied by the release of an audio cassette tape featuring Akua Lezli Hope performing her poetry and Dick Riddick on congas and percussion. Published by ArtFarm Press, a new small press in the southern Finger Lakes Region of New York State, EMBOUCHURE is available direct from the publisher for $10 including shipping and handling at the address above oror at literary bookstores for $7.95 (U.S.)The audio cassette tape can be ordered for $10 including shipping and handling from the publisheR
 

"I love its exuberance, its delight in language and rhythm..."
-Barry Fogden, poet and editor of Blue Cage (England) on EMBOUCHURE