book cover photo by Tomas RodriguezStaceyann
took to the stage and admitted to being a little bewildered at the difference between performing poetry to a poetry-loving audience and reading excerpts from a book that you really hope people will buy. As she mentioned more than once during the evening, it is amazing that Barnes & Noble is celebrating a Black, Asian, lesbian, woman poet with a book reading and signing...and if you want to see more of this type of thing, you need to buy this book and show them that their support is not misplaced. After getting settled, Staceyann opened with a short poem, Haiku On Turning 30: "Look at me. Writing poems. Lobbying to make boobs sexy when they sag." She followed by reading some excerpts from her memoir. One about self discovery that ended a bit tragically and could have taken a very bad turn if not for the poet's winning sense of humor. The other a taste of the heartbreak she felt upon meeting her father for the first time in her teens. She followed with a question and answer session, fielding topics ranging from "What advice do you have for an aspiring writer?" to "What kind of women are you into?" She answered with all the deft aplomb and quick wit that one would expect from a Def Poetry Jam alumnus. After staying to sign books, shake hands, and chat briefly with her admirers, Stacey ajourned to Bar13 for the afterparty which featured some words from Vivette Miller, Gloria Bigelow, and Tiona McClodden among others, as well as Staceyann herself. With music spun by Deejay Reborn on the one's and two's, a good time was definitely had by all.
On the written page (as in her live performance), Staceyann has unique ability to be heartbreakingly, startlingly honest, deeply dramatic and serious, and then turn it all around and laugh at herself in the same sentence. Because she so often lays bare some of the most intimate details of her life on the stage, the idea that there is still enough yet unsaid to fill an entire book may be quite a surprise to some. 
But for Staceyann and countless others who have grown up with Jamaican sands beneath their feet, being gay is not only frowned upon, it is illegal. It is dangerous. Much too often, it can be deadly. And though this has informed a large part of who Staceyann Chin is as a person and as a poet, she does not let it define her. Not on stage. And not in this memoir. Just as the little girl on the book's cover stands at once defiant and hopeful, so stand the stories told between its leaves. After all, one does not start out life, in any place, as an outspoken lesbian activist and poet. There are a lot of steps that fill the space between the choices made for us in childhood and the choices that we make for ourselves as adults. Staceyann gives us leave to poke our heads through the windows to her past to see what kind of a girl she was, what kind of a life she lived, and what kind of circumstances and happenstances led her to her current vocation (poetry) and her current location (Brooklyn, New York). It may not be all holiday, but it's most definitely a trip that I recommend we all take. If you are a woman. If you are gay. 
If you were an orphaned child. If you grew up poor. You need to read this book and see a side of yourself that you don't often expose to the light, and rise up and embrace your struggles. If you are none of these things, you need to read this book and try to experience life from someone else's point of view so that you can look upon your fellow human beings as human beings and not just a collective "THEM" over there. As illustrated in the title of Staceyann Chin's memoir, there is another side to paradise...but it is still paradise! So you'll want to check it out!
