Marilyn Nelson

"Poetry illustrated in the poet's own words--with brief prose descriptions of what she sees inside her work--this ... collection takes readers back in time and deep into the mind's eye of Marilyn Nelson ... [who] draws upon history, and her ... imagination, to revive the long lost community of Seneca Village"--Jacket.

My Seneca Village

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

Sepia-hued snapshots in quatrains and sonnets, rhyme and slant rhyme, of the people who lived in the lost community of Seneca Village, New York, before it was razed to create Central Park. Beginning in 1825, Seneca Village was known for having the most African American property owners. Swampy land no one else in Manhattan wanted, they built their homes and planted their gardens in relative peace, with the occasional rioting of angry white citizens threatening the community's hard-won freedoms to life and property. Using census records and the brief labels therein, Nelson connects the imagined lives of the village's inhabitants, freeborn or freed African Americans, Irish immigrants, German eccentrics, biracial families, and even a speech by Frederick Douglass, and creates a haunting glimpse into what might have been for a number of names that appeared simply on census roles. Gripping and poignant lines that leave an indelible curiosity to learn more about their history and to mourn their passing. Of note are the poems that paint a beautiful and tragic portrait of Matilda Polk and her broken heart. Recommended for grades 8 and up.

My Seneca Village

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