2000 Blacks

The impressive debut from Tolase weaves strands of transatlantic history and personal narrative to create a picture of African migration that is true to its many complications and contradictions. The poems move back and forth across the Atlantic, predominantly from Nigeria to the United States, exploring the dizzying experience of leaving one context for another, and often considering what is lost in the exchange. A series of “Refuge Sonnets,” for example, highlights the sense of dislocation the speaker feels under the stereotyping gaze of others: “I step into the new world and people stare at me. They want/ to ask how I arrived here, and if it’s true I brought desert sand/ with me.” Tolase has a knack for spotting the comical absurdities of the African immigrant experience, as in “White Girls Guide To Dating Black Boys,” which includes the speaker’s instructions, “If you invite him to/ your family’s dinner, spend a week/ teaching your grandma to act right.// If you must train your mom, too/ maybe wait until one of them is dead.” Powerful lines ponder the impossibility of a return: “I love you is as true as a train/ traveling into the past.” This searing collection captures the elusiveness of home. (Sept.)