GOLDEN AX

Rio Cortez is inventing a new literary genre, Afro-pioneerism, which explores the post-slavery history of her family and her people as they move into new locales that range from Utah to the cities of the East Coast. Her poems are marvelous and musical, accessible and capable of deep interpretation, although her delivery of them is less than perfect. Leaving room for listeners to find their own meanings and emphases is fine, but the poet could provide some guidelines to her emotional intentions; that is what we look for when listening to a poet's reading of her own work. Cortez's reading is not entirely flat, but a little more emotion in these very emotional poems would be welcome. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2022]