“If you know where you are, are you still lost,
or just lost to those wanting to find you?”
Who we are and how we see ourselves is profoundly related to place, not only in its current state, but also to its history. In the landscapes we call home are layered the stories of those who came before us; ancestors’ footprints, long buried, echo the journeys undertaken and the endeavours of those who would hope to find safety and opportunity in a new land. Sylvia D. Hamilton’s book of poetry Tender, connects the reader to the struggles of Black Nova Scotians, many of whom are the descendants of the African Americans who escaped slavery and of those Black Loyalists who came to Canada on a promise of fertile lands and freedom.
Divided into five sections, Tender is a meditation on the experiences of Black people through evocative storytelling that traverses time and place. Exploring the historical, the local, the global, and the personal, the thread that binds those experiences is imagined across generations while remaining integrated with Hamilton’s own deeply personal reflections.
“Greyed by the wash of sand and wave,
clustered against time. Each day walkers
pass these unknown worlds at their feet.”
The first section, “thursday forever african book of testimony” relates the stories of early arrivals Thursday Forever African and July Hamilton, two women who escaped slavery to make a home in Nova Scotia. Their wisdom is evidenced over time through their struggles as newcomers and in their resolve to make a home in the face of discrimination. These trials set the stage for later poetry which explores the impacts of violence on subsequent generations in the continued racism faced by Black people in the world and in the often corollary domestic violence that threatens the pragmatic, communal and spiritual cohesion of the home.
Hamilton draws parallels of experiences at home with those in other countries as she calls to mind iconic leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Hamilton never mitigates the pernicious effects of racism as she adds her potent voice to the chorus beseeching that it is often not safe to be Black anywhere.
“Half-life. Another Black boy died today.
Another Black boy shot today—
Ferguson, Missouri. Yesterday, Toronto.
He was running home, his grandma said.
Running to me. They won’t tell me why
my boy is dead. Here dead at my feet.
Tomorrow and tomorrow
and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Life is but—life is but what?
Black life is but what?”
In her most recent book of poetry, Sylvia D. Hamilton, celebrated writer, poet, filmmaker, and activist, balances the multiple meanings evoked by her aptly titled Tender: the ferry that symbolizes the journey, the payment that symbolizes the cost of eking out an existence, and the care that is deeply imbued in her words which mark the experiences of ancestors, her wider community, and her hopes for those to come.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a writer, filmmaker and artist, whose poetry collection And I Alone Escaped to Tell You (Gaspereau Press 2014), was a finalist for the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her honours include the Portia White Prize, the 2019 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media and the 2021 Luminary Award given by the Documentary Organization of Canada. She is an Inglis Professor Emeritus at the University of King’s College in Halifax.
- Publisher : Gaspereau Press (Oct. 13 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 137 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1554472369
- ISBN-13 : 978-1554472369
