What is your book all about?
My book, My P is Political is a collection of poems dedicated to womanhood. I focus on vast experiences that center women and girlhood, motherhood, and sex. In addition to that, because I am a mother and I’m Black, there are moments that reflect and speak to those specific experiences.
What inspired you to write the book?
Being a wife and mother is what inspired me to write the book. As a mom of two toddler boys, I ask myself all the time what kind of humans I hope to raise. More importantly, what kind of men will my sons become as a result of their parents’ example. Misogyny and the violence of the patriarchy are my main focuses in this book. When I’m thinking about what women face, I think about the type of boys who were reared and influenced to become men who continue to perpetuate a system that harms women and children. I think about the systems in place that enable them. As a mom, I can’t help but always consider what kind of boys I am sending out into the world and how the world could easily corrupt them.
I also started examining the dialogue and expectations of being a wife, especially since having kids. I am Catholic and suffocated by the “trad wife” conversations. In today’s world, it has only gotten more viral. I realized that a lot of the traditions can be harmful and actually lessen any form of accountability when women are harmed. Fortunately, I do have an amazing partner, which has only magnified the woes of society. All of it made me want to explore what is expected of women and men and, overall, the kind of world we live in. We live in a world that demands modesty and submission from women, no matter the harm done to them. And to be clear, I believe all women should have the choice to live the life that they choose. That idea is what inspired me most when writing this book.
What is your target audience for the book?
My target audience, in a nutshell, are feminists and thinkers. I want to inspire anyone who will read it.
What do you hope readers could get out of your book?
I hope readers have a broadened sense of self and reexamine parts of them that may contribute to any form of oppression against women and children. I hope they are informed and entertained and find some parts of my words thought-provoking. For years, I wrote poetry strictly for myself and my sanity. I wrote it for my healing and for my understanding of the world around me. I hope others will read it and have a similar experience with it. Hopefully, it will broaden their understanding of the world around them or give them a sense of empathy.
What are your future goals/plans for the book?
One of my goals is to finally do a reading with a live audience, so my fingers are crossed for that. Overall, my hope is that it finds its readers and goes very far.
And something more about yourself:
When I started this project, I was in graduate school and studying criminal justice. It was such an eye-opening experience for me and played a role in how I approached this collection of poems versus the previous one. I hadn’t written poems this consistently in years. I was moved by everything that I was learning, and it further inspired me to start. Unfortunately, I had to stop temporarily because I had to focus on finishing my studies. However, it also played a role in inspiring me to do this as boldly as possible.
I also have a BA in Journalism. Research is such an overlooked portion of writing poetry. When you’re writing something very specific and want to deliver a certain message, there is quite a bit of research and clarity needed to do so. So, needless to say, I spent quite a bit of time doing bits and pieces of reading to further fill in what I was trying to convey. In the end, I hope that shows.
Visit her Amazon Website : Melissa Menny
