Fury of Beauty

by Sam Drew/PNN

Sadly, in our consumer society even beauty and truth are just commodities that can be sold to the highest bidder. That's why it is so refreshing to encounter principled people whose souls cannot be bought like a carton of milk at your local Walgreens. Such an individual is Queennandi, a race and poverty scholar at POOR Magazine who has written an uncompromising set of poems entitled Life, Struggle and Reflection that has been recently published by POOR Press. Queennandi's poetry is raw, uncut, ruthless and daring.

Life, Struggle, and Reflection , is a collection of poetry that surfaced from the struggle of my soul, she reflected. This struggle of the soul has lead to thought provoking verses that is sure to win hearts and open minds.

Queennandi's poetry may be rooted in pain and struggle but the outcome for the reader is healing and uplift. I have endured oppression, mental slavery, and racism. Brutalization, betrayal, death and with my own eyes saw a once strong unified people be neutralized. I recognize this hell and the love I have inside my heart urges me to share the pain, to teach , to uplift, and to heal the people, exclaimed Queennandi.

Life, struggle and Reflection is dedicated to the heroes and sheroes of The Black Panther Party and the Black liberation movement who suffered at the hands of the government, explained Queennandi.

"This is dedicated to our fallen souljahz, past and present who gave their lives\freedom so that we and the generations to come could survive and grow in wisdom and knowledge, Our heroes and sheroes did not make this ultimate sacrifice so that we could keep continuing on genocidal ignorance," she said.

Whatever subject Queennandi's poetry touches on, she writes it with frankness, humor and aplomb. Just listen to a small piece of the poem entitled I Just Wanna Be and you will feel the strength that carries this powerful Black woman towards the truth. As Queennandi writes, "I just wanna be a Black woman that speaks up on those that violated me. In every way Set Me Free!"

Just absorb a fragment of the incendiary poem Fury of Beauty, where she warns all that she's a "Queen wit a heart of gold and eyez that see. Eyes that see what is being done to the people that she loves

Even though her forceful book is garnering rave reviews, Queennandi refuses to be separated from her people and their struggle as she calmly states, "By no means am I out to judge, ridicule. or paint a picture of myself to be holier than thou towards the people."

Truth and beauty are timeless and incorruptible concepts. The old adage says beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Those who pickup Queennadi's Life, Struggle and Reflection will be happy to find out that beauty is in the hands of the book holder.

For more information on Queenanndi and her work or to order a book please see http://www.poormagazine.com/static/queennandi/index.html or call 415-863-6306