collective madness by adrienne danyelle oliver

collective madness is an ecosystem cross-examining the architecture of colonialism, western medicine, and the construction of race. A testament to resiliency, tone choreographs light so that death is a letting go of / I in exchange for we. Undertones of Sonia, Ntozake, and Lucille, adrienne blossoms in this collection. She emerges as the innovative Black poet; she divinely is writing to her/ our people. Ashé.

–Thea Matthews, poet and author of Unearth [The Flowers] 

As lyricist and great spirit, adrienne danyelle oliver guides a raft made of her bones in an incredible feat of poetry and invocation. Challenging with investigation the grotesque dances of America, the personal is political revelation in this beautiful work. To know real pain and return with literary ascension. Meditations on fury, painting what epoch comes next.

–Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco Poet Laureate

As author of possibly the first and only memoir on Black women and fibroids, I’m delighted to welcome collective madness, adrienne danyelle oliver‘s new poetry collection about her fibroid journey, into this necessary conversation. These poems speak with raw urgency and generational wisdom to an aspect of Black women’s experience that is both shockingly widespread and shockingly neglected by the medical establishment, mainstream society, and literature. With lyricism and a light touch, oliver places the Black female body within the larger context of disruption, displacement, historic trauma and institutional neglect. In its invitation to decolonize the physical body/the body politic and heal physical/psychic wounds, this slim, essential volume is as intimate as it is ambitious.

–Faith Adiele, Author, The Nigerian Nordic Girl’s Guide to Lady Problems and Meeting Faith

Unflinching in their intimate testimony and social critique, the poems in collective madness lay bare the various ways historical trauma manifests in the Black woman’s body. Through her speaker’s ongoing battle with fibroids that both fill and render her empty, adrienne danyelle oliver makes the haunting claim that “this womb remembers / cargo of bodies / waiting to be crucified / or set free.” The journey of this collection is heartbreaking, infuriating, and absolutely essential.

–Lauren K. Alleyne, author of Honeyfish and Difficult Fruit