Wearing My Mother's Heart
This is the second collection of poetry by Gambian British poet Sophia Thakur. Through her strong narrative voice and arresting language, this collection explores Sophia’s expressed need to understand how the women in her life became so ‘compassionate, fierce, gentle and powerful.’ Loosely grouped into themes, the collection covers a broad range of subjects, woven through with common threads of love, God, and the formidable influence of her family and friends. Her poems resonate with a powerful rhythm.
An experienced and award-winning performance poet, Sophia was recently announced as one of the Forbes 2022 30 Under 30 for Arts and Culture within Europe. Performing since the age of sixteen, she has a wide reach across social media. In addition to a number of TED talks, she has performed on stages across the world, and shares her creative process with young people. She is working to empower communities as youth creator and educator ambassador.
There are numerous ways for poets to exhibit their creative work to a contemporary audience – performance poetry, Insta-poets, novels in verse, slams, to name but a few. For those whose poetry is part of a traditional collection on the printed page, it can be difficult to appeal to young readers amid the noise and hype of other more mainstream publications. This powerful and lyrical collection speaks such a universal language of deep and enduring love, it’s likely to appeal to a diverse readership.
