{"id":9110,"date":"2021-05-13T12:13:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T18:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=9110"},"modified":"2021-05-13T14:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T20:49:49","slug":"letter-to-lilly-by-funmi-coker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=9110","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Lilly by Funmi Coker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Refreshing\u2026 Powerful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coker\u2019s impressive debut pulses with rhythms and assertiveness as it talks defiance against accepted order. The uplifting and inspiring \u201cWhat Were You Told\u201d urges all females, from a girl child to a mature woman, to believe in their own abilities while examining the unfair expectations and practices when it comes to the fairer sex. In \u201cHow Do You Sleep,\u201d Coker delves into gender inequality, class and race disparity, faith and religion and asks relevant questions, such as, \u201cHow do you sleep when you lie?\/ say man is wood,\/ a woman is wool.\/ say, your wife is your most expensive item,\/ an object for exhibition.\/ say, she\u2019s a tool\/ & you\u2019re a worker.\u201d\u00a0 whereas the title poem \u201cLetter to Lilly\u201d celebrates female beauty, compassion, and strength: \u201cGirl, you are MELODY.\/ You make music soothing.\/ You are the dream, the dreamland.\/ Never forget. Never.\u201d Coker infuses the collection with emotion, hard truths, old practices, rightful anger, and descriptions of the discriminations that exist for women, including girl child, particularly in Africa. The poems contemplate gender inequality (\u201cInvention:\u201d \u201cDraw a woman, label her less than you would a man,\u201d \u201cA Pint of Madness:\u201d Say, a woman has no grit,\/ she cannot connect the dots,\u201d and \u201cThe Birth of Silence:\u201d \u201cagain the flat screen flutter\/ at Dad\u2019s voice. Again, freckles\/ blanket Mum\u2019s skin like desperate dews\/ blotting the sky.\u201d) rampant, especially in Black nations, and advise that every girl should consider herself beyond the concerns of the girl-child. Humming with life, the poems in the collection create a collage of universal female experiences while interweaving themes of identity, race, and belief. There is an honesty to Coker\u2019s writing as she delves into gender inequalities, and her sharp rendering of unfair gender practices is wholly appealing. Rhythmic and eloquent, this arresting collection is a must-read for every female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letter to Lilly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Funmi Coker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roaring Lion Newcastle LTD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date April 10, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN 9781913636975<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $9.49 (USD) Paperback, $3.00 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Refreshing\u2026 Powerful. Coker\u2019s impressive debut pulses with rhythms and assertiveness as it talks defiance against accepted order. The uplifting and inspiring \u201cWhat Were You Told\u201d urges all females, from a girl child to a mature woman, to believe in their own abilities while examining the unfair expectations and practices when it comes to the fairer sex. In \u201cHow Do You Sleep,\u201d Coker delves into gender inequality, class and race disparity, faith and religion and asks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":9111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[38100332,24777292,7223,726,7215,3328,178,1136176,54306025,62857929,422,531468,1473,1008073,856121,309,349],"class_list":["post-9110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-amreading","tag-amwriting","tag-author","tag-authors","tag-book-review","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-indie-books","tag-indieauthor","tag-indiebooks","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-collection","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-2mW","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/letters-to-lily.jpg?fit=250%2C400&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9110"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9126,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9110\/revisions\/9126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}