Charis welcomes Destiny Hemphill in conversation with Ra Malika Imhotep for a celebration of Motherworld: A Devotional for the Alter-Life. “Destiny Hemphill summons us to poetry as ritual, and ritual as reminder. Reminder: ‘you are not alone.’ Reminder: ‘we bonded to each other.’ Reminder: ‘made boundless and bountiful with each other.’ We are reminded that ‘this earth will outlive this world,’ and that our abolitionist task is ‘to make the world come undone.’ In this undoing, we are reminded ‘that when it / is not easy, this makes it even / more necessary to be sweet.’ For this gift of poetry as sacred work, I am incredibly grateful.” — k'eguro macharia

“‘mama say this earth will outlive this world,’ Destiny Hemphill writes, and in this gleaming collection she gathers what of this life might bloom into another. Through rituals, hymns, memories, murmurings, chants, and psalms, motherworld convenes the women and waters whose routes mark an otherwise from the brutal arrangements of the here and now. This transformative practice is not for the faint of heart. Toni Cade Bambara asks: ‘Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? . . . cause wholeness is no trifling matter.’ And here is a poet who answers with a resounding yes—her affirmation a root system, fortified by all the nourishment of blood and earth. Hemphill’s motherworld shimmers with that brightdark joy that is grief’s marrow. What luck and work to carry the instruction of these poems. I will be holding them close and pressing them into many hands.” — Claire Schwartz

“motherworld transforms language into something map-like, topographical, somatic. A vast heredity speaks out in this beautiful collection of poetry—it is the multifarious self and all those that came before. A hymn of “we bury ourselves like cicadas upon the unearthing, the first instruction is to weep” continuous death and rebirth is here. It is prophesy in a voice that is arresting and fierce. ‘i am trying to remold my mouth to speak more bravely,’ Hemphill writes. She examines the past, but is not mired by it. Grief and love are emotions that are processed through the body, which is painful, but a means towards tangibility and revolution. This language-driven reality gives us something living to hold in our very mouths, and transform. These poems feel godly. And shared. This book shares a secret with the reader: ‘the earth will outlive this world.’ And I for one needed very much to hear it.” — Bianca Stone

Destiny Hemphill (she/her) is a chronically ill ritual worker and poet based in Durham, NC. A recipient of fellowships from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Callaloo, Tin House, and Kenyon’s Writers Workshop, she is the author of the poetry chapbook Oracle: a Cosmology (Honeysuckle Press, 2018).

Ra Malika Imhotep, ph.d (Ra/They) is a Black feminist writer and performance artist and cultural worker from Atlanta, GA. They are co-convenor of a spiritual-political education project called The Church of Black Feminist Thought and a member of The Black Aesthetic curatorial collective. Their work has been published in Scalawag Mag, Burnaway, Arrow Journal, The Guggenheim Museum, Poets.org, Southern Cultures, and elsewhere. Their debut poetry collection, gossypiin, was published by Red Hen Press in 2022. This event is co-hosted by the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.

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Motherworld: A Devotional for the Alter-Life--Destiny Hemphill in conversation with Ra Malika Imhotep