Book Review: The Other Revival

Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas

A healing collection that remembers and projects the voices of a small community

“In the beginning there was the life of the enslaved man and the enslaved woman fully evolved, fully loved, fully remembered.”

Salaam Green, the inaugural poet laureate of Birmingham, Alabama, has produced The Other Revival out of her communication with the descendants of the Wallace House plantation, descendants of both the enslavers and the enslaved.

Many of the pieces were written during Homecoming days at the Wallace House, making for a spontaneity which is evident in the book. The name of the collaborator is given after the title of each poem, and short informational notes are provided for them in the back of the book, in addition to some of their direct thoughts in prose.

And so Green’s poetic voice, enriched by collaboration, acts as an interpreter for the complexities nesting in the descendants of the Wallace House. The book’s style shines in much of its forceful, passionate moments, like in the newly found readiness to “scream the part that once was whispered.”

In the poems from the perspective of the enslavers’ descendants, like “I Do Descend,” guilt is substituted with reflective accountability. In “Washing the White Out,” the versificatory playfulness contrasts with the gravity of the content. And “Prelude to a Sweeter Belonging,” this reader’s favorite in the collection, takes advantage of more traditional technique and imagery to moving effect. We are struck by the cruel jaggedness of the singular instead of plural “wing” in its penultimate line:

“Oh, how dignified and how far and free
the bird with clipped wing flies”

Green’s technique is generally reserved. The illuminated sensibility in these pieces is expressed through undecorated and unhazarding diction. The gears of the poetry’s mechanics don’t betray themselves by clunky noises, but it is also not always clear whether that is because they are so well oiled or missing altogether. So great a subject matter can, naturally, overwhelm its medium, its form and its craft. One thing is certain: The story is in the clarity of content not the lavishness of method.

The poems tell a captivating, intimate story of Black resilience in the smallest corners of American history. The spread-apart nature of the shifting perspectives tells a full story that shows intelligent forethought on the part of Salaam. This was and is a good idea. A collection that modifies the conscience and reclaims the holy awe of joy, The Other Revival is the kind of poetry that does not sing in simple tunes but that which renders dissonance bearable enough to be confronted.

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