Roger Bonair-Agard

To see Roger Bonair-Agard is to see the energized ritual of a craftsman and a trickster, singing out the fervent beat of his history. With Gully, this history is layered with metaphor thick as Calypso rhythm. We are shown a proud and hopeful youth in Trinidad, at a time when the West Indies cricket team was a dominant and inspiring force in a sport once ruled by white Englishmen. We are led through tales of Bonair-Agard's exodus to the cold and uncertain streets of New York, thick with both regret and becoming. Though the first half of the book is dominated by its themes, this book is not about cricket. Not really. It is about being a black boy. It is about being a black man in America. It is about what it means to be an American. It is about what it means to be a man. This universal truth heavy with triumph, loss, missteps, and moments of beauty. A truth communicated through this work with careful elegance, tangible heart, and honesty without apology.… (mer)

Upon meeting one an aquaintance, Roger Anthony Bonair-Agard's mother said, "He didn't do what I wanted him to do. But, he did what I wanted to do." This approval is the force behind Roger's breath, that wind which inspires me every Monday evening at Bar 13, every Monday night before I go to sleep and every time I think of his poetry.

Roger is the personification of the spirit of a human aspiration that laughs at every doubting skeptic and kills every jeer and jokester that says dreams can't come true.

His poetry takes the struggle of bildungsroman, and makes it admirable. His wit makes the struggle of life more bareable. One can never tire of his words or his voice. His poetry is not political, but it bares what should no longer be denied.

Tarnish and Masquerade is today's poetry that must be read and heard, tasted and sniffed with a paperback book and the accompanying CD. This is poetry that will haunt you while you are not listening, until you sumbmit to the urge and open the book again.… (mer)