Ma-Ka Diasporic Juks: Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent

Rating:
Summary: mediocre book on a great subject
Review: I'm glad that another lesbian & gay black anthology exists, but I wasn't particularly impressed with this book. I thought Hemphill's "Brother to Brother" and even "Afrekete" were much better books. Maybe due to the Canadian-British-diasporic scope, this book dealt with blacks in far whiter milieux and seemed a tad white-washed. Notice how the book has "queer" in the title when almost no African-American gay text does. I think the editors did not have much vision with this collection either. It's not terrible, but it could have been better.

Rating:
Summary: Makeda Silvia is to dread with this anthology
Review: Maka: Diasporic Juks (*Sister Vision Press) is a long awaited and greatly over due collection of Black writings. It's an assembly of grand, new and established, fiction and nonfiction, voices from Afro-Americans and Black Canadians. "Maka", coming from Canada, a country who does not afford it's most passionate to speak and expose their rage and creativity, offers, for the first time, an insight into the thoughts and testamony of Black Canadian's 'in the life. They are a welcomed inclusion.

It is a must read, if only for Lawrence Braithwaite's short story "BAGGY TROUSERS" (whose previous novel Wigger tackled the hellish interior monologue of contemporary youth and race). Braithwaite tells a twisted story, in street argot, of two Black teenagers "stuck" in a brief and brutal urban love affair.

Maka: Diasporic Juks, comes through all the way inspiring insight, intellgence, sexuality, sensuality and dread. A must read and great next step forward in the tradition of the late Essex Hemphill's Brother to Brother (Alyson Press). Ms Silvera and Ms Douglas, inspire dreams and action with this collection of thought, tales and testamony.