In her book Beloved, Toni Morrison describes the whip scars on a former slave’s back as a tree sprouting from her flesh. Walidah Imarisha’s first poetic collection Scars/Stars invokes this same process of alchemy, transforming both individual and collective scars into North Stars, guideposts that center us and keep us moving in the right direction. Scars/Stars reminds us that even in ravaged earth, something beautiful can still grow
