Review: Cicely Belle Blain Lyrically Explores Black & Queer Self-Love in “Burning Sugar”

ArtsWriting

Jul 7

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Sugar, coarse and crystalline, is transformed by fire. A rich dark syrup emerges from the flames, brilliant and sweet. This is what Cicely Belle Blain bears witness to, the trials of the black experience, its transformative and circumstance-defying abilities.

Burning Sugar is the debut collection of Cicely Belle Blain, new from Arsenal Pulp Press. This poetry collection is “a relevant and timely poetic exploration of Black identity, history, and lived experience influenced by the constant search for liberation by a Black, queer femme.” As activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver, Cicely’s poems advocate for black life. These poems come from a deep well of strength, wisdom and compassion. They perform hard and dutiful work with great sensitivity and care.

Burning Sugar is broken into three sections, and fluidly drifts between lyric essay and verse. The first section of the collection is called Place. These poems capture the feeling of being simultaneously displaced and at home, being both uprooted and among kin. “Toronto” stands out as an honest portrayal of the conflicting feelings of being black and queer. Cicely puts into words those identifiable moments perfectly, allowing the reader to find solace in the plight of these pages.

The same narrative always followed me and continued to tell me the same lie: Blackness and queerness are not compatible.

From “Toronto”

In the second section Art, Cicely looks to black artists and figures for solidarity, reconciliation, and answers. Cicely approaches each work of art with gratitude and patience yet speaks with fervor and conviction.

maybe,
like me, your life’s work is searching for Black joy
and
drowning in Black pain

Yours always,
CB
From “Dear Kahlil”

Finally, Child investigates a personal history. The roots of trauma are brought to light, from their ancestors to elementary school memories and beyond, we mourn alongside Cicely, recollect anger, and try our best to name what is lost, to put a finger on what went wrong.

it’s okay if you spent your whole life shunning it all, only to now want it back

you are no less worthy
it is no less home

Love always,
CB

From “Dear Diaspora Child”

Cicely traces their history and community between the coasts. The pain and jubilance are enacted in the same scene. Several generations in one page, time overlaps. The land is littered with sweet mangoes and the blood of innocent black lives. The ocean, all the while, is right there, in all its promise and possibility.

I am incredibly grateful for these pages, the way they show black queer self-love as it truly is; the way it troubles the status quo, how it is an act of resistance. Poetry here is its own protest, it is the choice in the moment to both fight and take flight. I am bonded to these poems, and this poet, even across countries, in their mission to exist freely, proudly, and without fear.

Pre-order your copy here and make your bookshelves that much sweeter.

—

Nicholas Goodly is the writing editor of Wussy Magazine.

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