In April 2021, I will not bear you sons, was published by noted feminist press Spinifex, Australia—supported with blurbs by Anne Waldman and Mariana Medrano. The book caused on uproar on Twitter in certain men’s groups and podcasts. Spinifex staunchly defended the book and a number of noted women poets & scholars defended the book on Amazon and in reviews: https://lucywritersplatform.com/2022/07/04/woemanhood-and-the-architecture-of-feminist-solidarity-a-review-of-usha-akellas-i-will-not-bear-you-sons/
“Usha Akella pays tribute to her own life and to that of other women. Writing from her Niyogi Brahmin sensibility with which she grew up, her poems are the medium for the unsilenced voice both of her own story and those of women across various cultures. She calls for a united womanhood in her poems dedicated to women violated through rape, caste, FGM, foot binding, religion, politics, terrorism and other patriarchal abuses to the women who have triumphed against subjugation building new ways of being.”
Reviews for I will not bear you sons:
Anne Waldman
Usha writes with “Sanskrit mantras in her veins”, from an exceedingly broad perspective –as feminist, activist, organizer, poet-citizen, engaging an intellect profoundly contemporary with the times. She spans a long reach, from the looming questions and fears around our intense and out of control pandemic to India’s National trauma in the Delhi rape case.
“Each of us is a naïve question as we always have been/curved like an embryo.” She also writes wittily her version of WC Williams’s “This is Just to Say”, where “plums are prudish/ slow to ripen/ a bit stiff “. She probes, she thinks with each situation, she grapples with the world in all its manifestations, also as a mother, poised in anticipation of what may come, but always with a steady heart and hand and ear in poetry. One line sent chills up my spine, as she contemplates all kinds of extinctions. An image of Virginia Woolf “inching into the Ouse”.
We are truly at precipice and this poetry can help wake up the world to itself. Kudos.
Marianela Medrano
Author of Rooting: A selection of bilingual poems
In I WILL NOT BEAR YOU SONS, poetry, the ordinary, and the extraordinary are all part of the same whole—spirituality. Usha Akella is an activist and a sage confronting us with images of oppression while the spirit of Sanskrit mantras runs in her veins.
“I wanted lakes to drink from, and they took the moisture from my body.” Here we have a narrator who pays attention to her emotions and ideas and speaks freely. Each part of this collection is an interrogation, forcing us to embrace what the poem is transforming.
Deploying the full range of poetic license, the poet makes Kali, the Virgin Mary, and Kim Kardashian dance the ordinary into divinity. Most importantly, the poetic voice is secure in knowing she will not bear patriarchy any sons; instead, she will have patriarchy bear her words!
The sage in her sees difficulties as points of entry into devotion; the prayers are her poems. She does not wait for the clouds to deliver the divine; she rushes into the crowds to find it. These poems distil perennial wisdom and are charged with life and a brilliance that lends us humans, particularly women, a voice. The poet demands that we speak.
The project is part of the subtheme Healing Narratives - Poetry, Mental Health and Collective Trauma.
Author
Matwaala South Asian Diaspora Poetry Collective
Concerned about the visibility of South Asian poets in the American poetry scene, university reading series, and representation in anthologies and syllabi, we were inspired to initiate a collective. Though the core mission may be perceived as idealistic or even somber, Matwaala, materialized in a weirdly magical way in Austin. The idea of a poetry festival emerged after an editorial project we co-edited for www.museindia.com. The issue focused on a project involving Diaspora artists and poets that generated the idea for sustained collaboration and initiatives. A festival was its magnification, and appeared, erected on a shoestring budget propelled by enthusiasm and faith in 2015. The first festival/collective drew to its fold a group of poets, Saleem Peeradina, Pramila Venkateswaran, Ravi Shankar, Sasha Parmasad and Varshs Saraiya Shah. Joie de vivre, friendship and a sense of community have become the hallmark of the festival that seeks to establish a paradigm based not on hierarchies but on solidarity, offering readings by established and emerging poets, youth forums, papers and panel discussions.
In 2019 Matwaala launched its website, branding, and e-anthology, hosted readings in NYU, Hunter College and NCC. It received sponsorship from Poets & Writers and hosted South Asian diaspora poets from the UK.
Author
Usha Akella
Usha Akella has authored ten books that include poetry, and two musical dramas. Her latest poetry book I will not bear you sons, was published by Spinifex, Australia. The Waiting published by India’s Academy of Letters, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi was translated by Elsa Cross in Spanish and published by Mantis Editores, Mexico. She edited and conceived Hum Aiseich Bolte! This is just how we speak, a poetry anthology on the city of Hyderabad released at HLF 2023. A festschrift, A house of words, in honor of Keki Daruwalla is due in 2024 from the Akademi.
She earned an MSt. in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is the founder of Matwaala (www.matwaala.com), launched to increase the visibility of South Asian poets, and www.the-pov.com, a website of curated interviews. She was selected as one of the Creative Ambassadors for the city of Austin in 2019 & 2015. She is widely anthologized, and has been invited to numerous international poetry festivals, and by prestigious venues/hosts such as the Ministry of Arts and Letters, Mexico (2023); House of Lords (2016 organized by Yogesh Patel) etc.,
