by Lillian Allen

Lillian Allen is a poet. She was born in Jamaica, moved to Canada and has lived here for almost twenty years.

Rhythm an' Hardtimes is about hard times, written from the point of view of a Black woman. But she is a very determined person. When she wants something, she goes for it. She fights back. "I fight back" is the title of one of our favorite poems.

Lillian Allen also talks about the struggle for liberation from men who try to tell us who we are and what we should be like. The book has lighter poems, too. Back Chatting is about a little girl who stands up to a busybody called Big Ass Miss P.

The book is especially interesting for women from the Caribbean. We came here in search of new experiences. We took advantage of opportunities for work, and we stayed, in spite of the cold! Lillian Allen made us remember what it was like to come to Canada.

Some of the poems are hard to read because they are in Patois. But as Lillian says in the book, "My work is definitely not meant to lay still on the written page but to be performed." Her poems are also available in cassette and record form. Have a listen, if you can.

The book is hard to read. Some of the poems are in very small type and the titles are not clear. The poems could be spaced better.

But the book is good. We think women would like to read it.

A review by Cherry Clue, Frances Cullinane, Annmarie Hall, Diane Ellson and Vivian Stollmeyer, Toronto, Ontario