Quarto 2020 Chapbook Contest Runner Up
Click on the image to read a PDF version of Crystal’s chapbook.
Illustration by Zain Murdock
My name is Crystal Foretia (she, her, hers), a sophomore in Columbia College studying Political Science and History. Born and raised just outside of DC, I am the daughter of Cameroonian immigrants. Notes of an Estranged Daughter is a collage of anecdotes and contemplations on Black history. Some poems are inspired by and directly respond to art either by Black people or centering Black figures. Other poems draw on confrontations with internalized, interpersonal, and structural racism. Overall, the piece explores the feelings of a young Black woman trying to make sense of a world made chaotic by colonialism and white supremacy.
“Madeleine, la femme noire” was published in The Unorthodocs: https://www.theunorthodocs.org/la-femme-noire. “Under the Weeping Willow” was published in Surgam, the literary magazine for The Philolexian Society: https://surgammag.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/surgam_spring20_20_final.pdf. Lastly, “what the conch said to the black child” was already published by Quarto Online on Oct. 27th.