Unwashedgives readers the pure delight that people on Torontos oral poetry scene have been enjoying for a while the beautiful profound poetry of Daniel Maluka sings and speaks from these pages with the voice of the poet in person There is lightness and sadness unflinching awareness and equal resilience in these poems that combine contemplative stillness and the momentum of story and song I think of beautiful poems like Field Notes on the Hermit or The Dream where Two silent riders arrive at the ruined tower InUnwashedMaluka enters deep into the contemporary self while at the same time living fully beautifully often sadly in our world of tv dinners John Lennon dreams midnight regrets assistant managers cats waiting for a handout social injustice and the haunting presence of a father aware he sent his son into a world that hates him A F Moritz

Daniel MalukasUnwashedis the unvarnished truth about the experience of feeling unwanted unloved and unfree in the midst of Canadas largest city Maluka turns his eyes forensically on the lives of his family friends lovers and neighbours and on the conundrum that is Canadian Multiculturalismso welcoming so liberatingyet frustrated so insidiously by White Supremacism These poems are scarily poignant they are for all the unwashednot to bleach or brainwashbut to clear away the threat of whitewash with the promise of baptismal rebirth Welcome now Daniel Maluka George Elliott Clarke author ofCanticles III MMXXIIIand Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada 2016 amp 17

Unwashedarticulates a coming into awareness of the junk enchantments animating identity and social belonging in Canada today Daniel Malukas voice lays down a story of betweennesswhere ones sources of family and meaning conflict bodily and psychically with the foundational myth of home A bid for tenderness permits hope in this first book of poetry Dale Martin Smith Toronto Metropolitan University professor and author ofThe Size of Paradise

Daniel MalukasUnwashedstirred parts of my soul I didnt know could be reached The emotions are so vividly captured it feels like hes written a piece of my own heart Carlos Anthony author ofShades of Black

Daniel Maluka is a keen and talented observer of the changing social fabric These poems contain worlds Moez Surani author ofOperationsandThe Legend of Baraffo

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