Finna

FINNA is a love letter – to Blackness, to Chicago, to the self-examined life. I was blown away by its beauty, its alternating simplicity and complexity. I love how it blends past, present, and future into a book of possibility. Thank you Tashay (@bookonthel on Instagram) for sending this to me.

My favorites from this collection:

• the valley of its making
• another Nate Marshall origin story
• Oo Wop De Bam
• welcome to how the hell i talk
• what can be said
• African american literature
• what it is & will be
• imagine
• FINNA

These are all mostly from the second half of the collection, and I'm not sure I can pinpoint why. I did press pause on this book about halfway through because I felt a peculiar existential sadness reading the section “The Other Nate Marshall.” Which is interesting, because this book wasn't “for” me as a rule, so am I ascribing a sentiment that isn't there? Something for me to ponder and internalize. I look forward to revisiting this collection again in the future.

I listened to this on audio (via Libro.fm) and read the print for an immersion experience! I'd highly recommend that.

Other bookstagrammers reviews I'd recommend are:
@booksonthel
@lettireads
@prettymuchbooks
@matthewsciarappa

This book also made me think about all the ways we can support Black possibility, from donating to Little Free Libraries in underserved neighborhoods and writing positive Yelp reviews for Black-owned businesses to purchasing from Black creators and calling out microaggressions. (If you have ever heard the word “ghetto” used derogatorily in the workplace, you have the power to use your voice in support of Black people.) It can also mean applying pressure to the system to reduce sentences for drug convictions that disproportionately impact Black and brown people and urging your workplace recruiting to build connections with HBCUs. This book doesn't feel like it's written for non-Black folks but yet we must strive to take what we have eavesdropped on and do something. I've got work to do. As the famous Octavia Butler said, “So be it! See to it!”

“O whatever God or whatever ancestor that wins the next life
i pray let me be an artifact of use. let all my poems be
bowls or thrones or hairpieces or marriages.
let everything i make, if it should survive, tell the next world
mine were a people of faculty and faith.”