I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, Taylor Byas
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, Taylor Byas
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I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times
Poems

Author: Taylor Byas

Narrator: Taylor Byas

Unabridged: 1 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/20/2024


Synopsis

Inspired by The Wiz, this debut, full-length poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman's quest for self-discovery—one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her power

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times takes its inspiration and concept from the cult classic film The Wiz to explore a Black woman's journey out of the South Side of Chicago and into adulthood. The narrative arc of The Wiz—a tumultuous departure from home, trials designed to reveal new things about the self, and the eventual return home—serves as a loose trajectory for this collection, pulling listeners through an abandoned barn, a Wendy's drive-thru, a Beyoncé video, Grandma's house, Sunday service, and the corner store. At every stop, the speaker is made to confront her womanhood, her sexuality, the visibility of her body, alcoholism in her family, and various ways in which narratives are imposed on her.

Subverting monolithic ideas about the South Side of Chicago, and re-casting the city as a living, breathing entity, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times spans sestinas, sonnets, free-verse, and erasures, all to reimagine the concept of home. Chicago isn't just a city, but a teacher, a lingering shadow, a way of seeing the world.

About Taylor Byas

Taylor Byas is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the first-place winner of the 2020 Poetry Super Highway, the 2020 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets, and the 2021 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry. She is the author of the chapbooks Bloodwarm and Shutter and her debut full-length collection, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times. She is also a coeditor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume X: Alabama.


Reviews

Goodreads review by df

This book is a triumph. All too often I’m guilty of speeding through poetry books but this one will make you slow your pace and savour each chapter, each poem.......more

marked up so many lines/poems in this collection!! taylor byas you are the queen of extended metaphors poems on chicago, love, belonging, and complicated father-daughter relationships.......more

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, alcoholism Yes, I know Taylor and I’m grateful to be her friend, but I also wish that I didn’t know her so I could discover her work for the first time and go “WHO THE FUCK IS TAYLOR BYAS AND WHY IS SHE SO BRILLIANT?” But I know her so maybe I’m #totallybyased.......more

Goodreads review by Kiran

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times is a poetry collection centered on the black Chicago experience. Byas used a closely hewn and personalized style to give voice to a very particular community’s experience. The poems revel in the family histories and choir songs of black experience, and a lot of th......more