While her family, including a psychic mother and a gifted grandmother, await the return of Imani on her seventeenth birthday, Imani supports a best friend, who has just revealed that she is pregnant. Reprint.

Open Weave

Major, Devorah

Parenting & Relationships

BERKLEY

Top Poetry Books of Fall 2016 - Library JournalWho are we humans, with our differences and our personal histories, mythologies and urgencies, as well as our collective struggles and dreams? Why are we here?Questions of culture, ethnicity and genderand the denial of those bordersinfuse these poems, rich with social and political commentary, and filled with compassion, love, anger and hope. Even while writing of one child, one homeless person, one soldier, one war survivor, devorah major connects these individual stories to a contemplation of humanity's place in the cosmos"Four sections of this long-awaited volume: spirit', 'other selves', fragile', whole' reveal a writer and life experiencer at the height of her poetic powers. Whenever I become too self-satisfied in intellectual games, I find my heart upended by these impassioned verses of humanity and what it means to be fully alive and present. From 'nommo-how we come to speak' to 'war memories', this former San Francisco Poet Laureate and worldly cosmonaut handles politics, war, and love in equal measure as the best poets of the people do. Pablo Neruda. Bob Kaufman, June Jordan. Wanda Coleman. Ears to the ground and eyes to the sky.”Giovanni Singleton"In and then we became, devorah major steps out of the way and allows creation to craft creation. The structures and paints of her descriptions have incredible range of effect: the ascension into the first history a free people teach, the short story perceived through possession, the melodic start-stop motion of a debilitated life, the flash of your torturer’s dream; all part of a collaged panoramic of spirit and flesh. She is at home in all dimensions of her subject. The voices of this work walk straight toward you holding out moments of violence, lament, beauty, and invincibility for you to embrace, offering a face to become your own."Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of Someone's Dead Already"devorah major remains one of our premier storytellers. She wraps myths and headlines, family lore and visions in language that is both delicate and tough, enticing us to dive in even though the poem she serves up may have dangerously sharp edges. Her poems eagerly call forth the African deities who give her voice as she wrestles with the mysteries of this plane from why a woman may want to be a soldier to how we learn to love. These poems are like prayers to which you return each night."Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories and Name Poems"I hate to turn on the radio each morning where I hear that men haven't changed, staying in office for generations and generally acting the fool. devorah major uses the many voices of women to explore a world that we know less about than the oceans of Enceladus. The great thing about devorah’s book is that we can't interrupt as she rolls out the indictment poem by poem.”Ishmael Reed"major’s book could not have come at a more appropriate time as now when the clamor of despair is being spoken into the universe. But as many of us know, these are also times for listening to our hearts and minds and doing what’s right for the greater majority, the global world of which we are a part. Reading and really reflecting on the messages in these poems will help us to become our better selves."—Opal Palmer Adisa

and then we became

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

City Lights Publishers

Award-winning writer, performer, and teacher devorah  major became the third Poet Laureate of San Francisco in April  2002. The author of countless essays, short stories, and poems, major  has presented her work across the United States and Europe. Her  writings have been published in The Single Mother?s Companion,  Practicing Angels, and ZYZZYVA, among others. She received a writing  fellowship from the California Arts Council for her work as a Spoken  Word Artist in 2002 and a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for  Excellence in Literature for her last volume of poetry, street smarts  (Curbstone Press) in 1996. In 1995, her first novel, Open Weave (Seal  Press), was awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of  the American Library Association.

With More Than Tongue

Creative Arts Book Co.

Melodic and vibrant, this debut novel braids together three generations of an extended African-American family in which everyone is fiercely and uncompromisingly bound by love and loyalty. The story explores in particular the lives of the women in the family: Ernestine, the blind grandmother who weaves astonishing cloths; Iree, her epileptic and visionary daughter; Imani, Iree's strong-willed and fast-talking teenage daughter; and Amanda, Imani's shy best friend who is struggling to find her way. An unforgettable story that is by turns magical, tender and gritty, An Open Weave creates a rich, affirming portrait of a family and a community.

An Open Weave

Humor & Satire

Seal Press

A stunning new voice in African-American poetry, Devorah Major in street smarts explores the hardships of life in the streets, the damage that is done there, and the strategies for survival. Hers is a powerful, affirmative voice that is joyful and proud.

Street Smarts

Curbstone Books

Brown Glass Windows is the story of the Evermans, an African-American family in the Filmore District of San Francisco and the tragic history of their son, Ranger, who returns scarred from his experiences in Vietnam and struggles with drug addiction. Ironically, when he finally conquers his drug habit, he is killed meaninglessly in a drive-by shooting. Ranger's death causes the family, with its suppressed recriminations and accumulated resentments, to pass through the crisis and come out on the other side of grief stronger and more united. The novel is also a kind of elegy to the old Filmore District. As Ranger says, they've redeveloped the neighborhood "into a little doorway to hell," a comment that will resonate deeply with readers not only in San Francisco, but in Hartford, L.A. and other urban centers throughout the country, where people have lost their once closely-knit neighborhoods either through urban decay or gentrification, or both. Brown Glass Windows is a beautifully structured book employing techniques of magical realism-a grittily realistic narrative framed by the spirit world. The novel is narrated by a spirit of a woman 200 years old, who watches over her elderly Black friend, Victoria. Victoria, a wonderfully eccentric character, who paints herself white and strives to be invisible, plays an important role in the healing of the Everman family. devorah major, an accomplished poet, invests her novel's landscape and characters with layers of meaning without ever obfuscating the realistic surface narrative (one is reminded of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison). Brown Glass Windows gives us a rich blend of realism and imagination, elegizing the passing of an era and presenting vibrant characters who move into the future with hope and courage.

Brown Glass Windows

United States

This collection of poetry begins with the poet’s inaugural address as Laureate of San Francisco, a sparkling essay that shows how poetry can please and empower. Strong, introspective and caring, major’s poems capture the challenge and joy of being an artist, as they survey the political and social landscapes of one of America’s favorite cities.
"A visionary of hope, with a heart big enough to embrace every neighborhood, street and alley in this magical and -poetical city. Here is a poet who shoots straight as Cupid’s arrow. Zing! Right to the heart."—Alejandro Murguía
devorah major is a poet, novelist, and essayist who has published prize-winning works of fiction and poetry. Among her books are Open Weave,Brown Glass Windows, and Street Smarts. She lives in San Francisco and works as an editor and arts administrator.

Where River Meets Ocean (San Francisco Poet Laureate Series)

City Lights Foundation Books

<div>A breathtaking collection of work celebrating 125 years of San Francisco's legendary museum The de Young is San Francisco's oldest art museum, treasured in a unique verdant setting. Beginning as the Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum in 1895, the museum has been a valued center of world art and culture, serving the Bay Area and, increasingly, national and international visitors and scholars. A city museum since 1924, it joined the Legion of Honor in 1972 to become part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, together preserving and exhibiting the most widely inclusive art collections in the city. Over the years, the de Young buildings changed in telling ways, transforming to protect and present a continuously expanding array of objects and their histories. Published to mark the 125th anniversary of the de Young, this volume offers a new path to artworks from across its departmental disciplines: art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; American art; contemporary art and programming; costume and textiles; and works on paper. Poetic themes, curatorial insights, brief institutional histories, and an expanded historical timeline are accompanied by lavish new photography, presenting this beloved museum to audiences today. de Young 125 features a selection of 125 works from around the world that span more than two millennia and convey a shared human experience and creative achievement.</div>

de Young 125

Arts & Photography

Shuck, Kim

Karlstrom, Ann Heath

History & Criticism

Abrams Books

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Books by Major, Devorah