A richly imagined, physically charged poetry collection in which history, myth, and protest are transformed into lyrical gestures. Sylvie Kand s Gestuary offers a collection of gestures-of death and life, of tenderness and brutality-that fractures the flow of time. Senegalese riflemen from World War I are juxtaposed with migrants at borders who sew their lips shut in protest over immigration policies. In dream-like sequences, the dead refuse to stay underground and push against the fence / that swings between our realm and theirs. Inspired by unexpected sources, including jazz, sculpture, the legacy of the slave trade, proverbs, and elements of Diola culture, Kand s poems are rich in musicality and sophisticated syntax, rendered into a lyrical and luminous English by Nancy Naomi Carlson.

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