Kumina Queen

There is nothing more quintessentially Jamaican than pure intellectual spice. Minott's offering, Kumina Queen, leaves the artistic palate craving more. Kumina Queen is, no doubt, a regal rendering of life experienced in common spaces: love, meditation, cries, politics, ecstasy and even romps find themselves between these sheets (of paper). Minott, as it were, bares it all and leaves nothing untouched, even the questions themselves are questioned. This poetic anthology is sure to bring the reader an intimate (if not illicit) love affair with pregnant ideas and the cultural wellspring from which they were birthed.As the title intimates, Kumina Queen manages to marry two extreme ends of the spectrum: finding surreal magic in life's real crowning moments. It is here that Minott discovers discoveries. The raw emotionality and frank, unencumbered talk poses only one challenge -- it imagines a world of worlds not too far away from that place we call home. Kumina Queen is a mirror cast deep into the corners and crevices of our hidden conscience, forcing us to reflect. Dare we look, we may find the familiar face of uncertainty peering back at us.

The thread throughout Monica Minott’s collection of lyrical-story poems is ‘Triumph’’. The context is historical as it provides guidance on how to snatch success from the jaws of defeat, against all the odds; as in “Fire De a Muss-Muss Tail” or “Dockside”. This Collection of poems is evocative as it is aspirational capturing the sorrows, the sufferings and the pain of what it is to be woman in post-slave-emancipation societies; and shows the way to hold on to the shredded memories of things African – a way of overcoming trials and tribulations as in “Dead Children are Dead”, “Sister Bernice” or in the title poem. The poems in the Collection "Kumina Queen", are likely to cause smiles, reflection and may even jerk some tears, as they gives us meaning, strength and hope for the future. In addition to being thought provoking, it is a thoroughly enjoyable Collection.