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Tornado Child Kwame Dawess Analysis

Decent Essays

Ai, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kwame Dawes are all contemporary African American poets. Their works often focused on different aspects of the post civil rights movement in the African American community. Ai was known for writing poetry on hard subjects. She was laso known for writing poems that were graphic. Being multiracial, ( 1/2 Japanese, 1/8 Choctaw, 1/4 Black, and 1/16 Irish), many of her poems were based on the complexity of idenity. On the other hand, Kwame Dawes is a Nigerian born man of Jamaican descent. Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American women whose adult years were spent during the civil rights movement. “Tornado Child” is a poem written by Kwame Dawes in 2002. It celebrates different aspects of black womanhood. In contrast, Gwendolyn Brook’s “we are cool” is written in the sixties and talks about negative aspects of life. “The Kid” by Ai is graphic and depicts violence. All of the poems demonstrate different struggles that are faced by the African American community. This essay will specifically examine the African American struggle through the lens of misogynoir, education, and the destruction of black families. The first poem, “Tornado Child” by Kwame Dawes explores the African American struggle through misogynoir. Dictionart.com describes misogynoir as “the specific hatred, dislike, distrust, and prejudice directed toward black women (often used attributively)”. In other words, misogynoir is a form of sexism that directly affects black women. This different for misogyny because race, as well as gender, is affecting black woman. “Tornado Child” is dedicated to woman and is meant to celebrate them. It starts off with the author trying to praise the woman for her attributes. The lines, “When thunder rolls my womb trembles, remembering the tweak of contractions” celebrates the miracle of birth. (Lines 9 and 10) The poem is supposed to celebrate black womanhood, but instead ojectifies it and turns it into a fetish. For example, the line “carry you to where you've never been…” is similar to the phrase “I will take you to place you never been before.” which is a euphemism for sex (Line 4). This is not the only line in the poem that talks about sex. In line 22, the author describes the

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