About Afaa Weaver & "The Plum Flower Trilogy"
Aesthetic Statement
"The Plum Flower Dance" orders twenty years of my work according to the five element theory in order to show the effects of childhood sexual abuse on my life and my work. "The Government of Nature" goes after the subject of the trauma itself, with a focus on the reconciliation of Christian principles with the importation of Daoist practice, all in the context of a recovery of self from the entanglement of trauma. "City of Eternal Spring" chronicles my travels abroad in Taiwan and China, as well as showing the limits of cultural influence. It could be said that in "The Trilogy," I am looking to establish a sense of my integrated self and something that is both very American and deeply human out of a rooting in the African American. "The Plum Flower Trilogy" is the culmination of my lifework to date, and it is the announcement of what I hope will be my next major phase as a poet. The intersection of eastern and western is written across my soul space. ~Afaa Weaver "Poetry was a gift cracked-open inside a cauldron of fiery shifts lit by the first emergence of repressed childhood trauma." ~ Afaa Weaver, Aesthetic Statement for "My Walking Shoes: Working-class origins of an American Lyric"_______________________________________________________________ |
|---|
In the trilogy that began with "The Plum Flower Dance," I have tried to poetically embody the integration of experience and influence. Chinese culture has been central to my development as a poet, and to my understanding of self through a lifelong pursuit of realization.