'Whereas' by Layli Long Soldier is a collection of poetry that delves into the Native American experience, shedding light on the struggles, oppression, and cultural heritage of the First Nations. The book is praised for its modern and refreshing style, which challenges the reader to learn new languages and explore traditional storytelling intertwined with contemporary poetics. Through deconstruction and restructuring of language, Layli Long Soldier invites readers on a journey to understand and appreciate the Native experience, offering a new perspective on historical events like the Dakota 38 Massacre.
The poems in 'Whereas' are described as heavy, emotionally impactful, and deeply thought-provoking. The book's layout, visual vocabulary, and use of different styles and structures contribute to its absorbing nature, encouraging readers to reflect on the content long after reading. Layli Long Soldier's work in this collection is praised for its profoundness, spiritual perfection, and its ability to provide a human response to historical injustices and colonial legacies. Overall, 'Whereas' is a testament to the power of poetry in conveying complex narratives and fostering understanding across cultural divides.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book contains heavy themes related to historical trauma, violence against Native peoples, and colonial impact, meriting high content warnings.
From The Publisher:
Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry
WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces? Until a friend comforted, Don't worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father's language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands; I watch her be in multiple musics.
-from "WHEREAS Statements"
WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. "I am," she writes, "a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation-and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live." This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.
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About the Author:
Layli Long Soldier received a 2015 Lannan Fellowship for Poetry, a 2015 National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and a 2016 Whiting Writers' Award. She lives in Arizona and teaches at Diné College.
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