The Bronx born activist and poet Roya Marsh returns with a riveting exploration of Black joy, collective action, and healing.
what will come of what you leave behind?
do you
remember that time
you survived?
The poems in Roya Marsh's second collection, savings time, wear their raw feeling and revolutionary forcefulness on their sleeves. Alternating between confrontation and celebration, Marsh trains her unsparing eye on the twinned subjects of Black rage and Black healing with practiced, musical intention.
In poems flitting between breathless prose and measured lyricism, Marsh contemplates the contradictions and challenges of Black life in America, tackling everything from police brutality and urban gentrification to queer identity, presidential elections, and pop culture, all while calling for a world where self-care, especially for Black women, is not just encouraged but mandated. "no one told the Black girl," she writes, "'see you later' was a prayer / begging us survive our own erasure."
As unforgettable on the page as when recited in Marsh's legendary spoken-word performances, the poems in savings time are focused on both revolution and self-love, at once holding society accountable for its exploitation of Black life and honoring the joy of persisting nonetheless.
About the Author :
Bronx, New York native, Roya Marsh is a poet, performer, educator and activist. She is the author of dayliGht, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry and savings time (MCD/FSG). Roya works feverishly toward Queer liberation and dismantling white supremacy. She is the co-founder of the Bronx Poet Laureate, and leads creative writing workshops with NYC DOE, PEN America Emerging Voices, Lambda Literary's LGBTQ Writers in Schools and Poets & Writers. Roya is the awardee of the Lotos Foundation Prize for Poetry and 2024 Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award from Bronx Council on the Arts. Roya and her work have been featured widely including, The Academy of American Poets, The Poetry Foundation, Poetry Magazine, GLAAD, Electric Literature, The Village Voice, Nylon, Huffington Post, The Root, Button Poetry, BAM, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Apollo Theater, Joe's Pub, Lexus Verses and Flow, On One with Angela Rye, BET and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket 2018).
Review :
"Known for her spoken-word poetry, Marsh's print poems climb off the page and stand tall in many contexts. While musical and expertly paced, the poems are also notable for language that matches emotion with expert precision . . . for their rejection of veiling what must be said. . . and for the discourse
that opens with Marsh's honesty, then moves forward to ask essential questions of us all."
--Sara Verstynen, Booklist
"If you point me in the direction of the nearest church
I'd run inside and scream Roya Marsh's name.
For if God saves her,
she will save us.
She is not writing for the sake of poetry,
But for the sake of our souls."
--Jasmine Mans, author of Black Girl, Call Home
"Roya Marsh has offered a collection of work for those who are ready to feel something, to remember something, to imagine something. savings time invites us, above all, to be honest with ourselves about the world we live in --Marsh gives us the language to do so."
--Rachel Cargle, author of A Renaissance of Our Own
"Scientists have reported that time is literally speeding up. However, Roya Marsh's new work reminds us that it is Black, queer, artists who bend time, who sculpt it with language and truth. These poems ask us to reclaim our time; to tenderly coax the future from the hands of so much oppression. This work reminds us, it is indeed us, who will save time."
--Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
"In a world of too much curation that desperately clings to performative patterns and homogeneous hashtags, Roya Marsh's savings time is your beloved, your breaking heart, your own mirror gently beckoning you out of every useless façade of restraint or good behavior and back into the light of all that still lingers. Roya's poems remind us of what these poems can do: uncover, un-shame, and unbury."
--Candice Iloh, author of Salt the Water
"I started reading Roya Marsh's words and after the first few pages had to put the book down. It was too powerful! As I continued, the pacing made me feel like I was on the A train between 59th and 125th--that long stretch of speed with no stops in between, where I get lost in my thoughts gazing at fellow passengers, while the car shakes my body into a jiggle. That is how savings time made me feel. Roya Marsh's writing is unapologetically from the block without the code switch, expressed for our people to provoke, inspire, and uplift. If only the world could be this intelligent and empathetic."
--Bobbito García, author of Bobbito's Books of B-Ball Bong Bong
"savings time is a book you gift to your favorite cousin, the one who is right on the verge of a breakthrough but just can't get the words out of their mouth. Because it is not just a book of poems. It is a promise. Roya Marsh writes like she really believes we can be free. I believe her."
--EbonyJanice Moore, author of All the Black Girls Are Activists
"In savings time, Roya Marsh sharpens her words like a razor, cutting through the layers of identity, trauma, and defiance with a voice that is as relentless as it is tender. These poems are not just read but felt, each one a visceral reminder of the ongoing struggle to exist fully in a world that too often attempts to erase you. Marsh's poetry collection is a fierce, unapologetic and bluesy anthem for anyone who's ever been told they're too much or not enough."
--Frederick Joseph, National Bestselling Author of We Alive, Beloved
