Starred review from August 21, 2023
In this ecstatic debut, Byas chronicles a Black woman’s coming-of-age in Chicago, the city that shaped her. The collection takes its structure from the layered narrative arcs of the 1978 film The Wiz, a Black reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz, to weave a story of the speaker’s path from the South Side to the wider world and back again. Byas has a knack for lyrically capturing small details that make the speaker’s South Side community unique, as in the poem “Corner Store”: “These aisles I can’t forget;/ the quarter bags of chips I’d buy and flip/ for profit in our sock-rot locker rooms,/ the frosted glass doors with their fingerprints/ and drinks I dreamed to taste-test on porch steps.” In her portrayal, the South Side may be full of tough love, but love nevertheless abounds: “—the women cooking/ on their balconies and patios to side-/ eye all the young folks slinking past… this is a form of love as well,/ the way they judge the length of your daisy dukes/ and feed you, send you home with a plate.” These nuanced and complex poems offer unforgettable snapshots of Black life in a vibrant city.