Kente Colors (by Debi Chocolate)

Kente, a fabric developed by the Ashanti and Ewe people of Ghana and Togo that has become fashionable in the United States, is symbolically connected to its roots in African culture. An author's note explains kente's history and its uses.

Through vivid paintings, KENTE COLORS presents images of African village life, yet no story is told; they are merely distinct displays of various ceremonies and occasions when kente cloth is traditionally worn. In the frontispiece the author only hints at the fabric's popularity in the United States, where, for example, African-American clergy wear kente stoles over their robes. The poem's rhythm is obstructed by the intensity of unrelated paintings by John Ward. Each page, with multihued kente-cloth borders, is bold and bright, yet the dominant color is often hard to identify amid the jumble of other colors.

Kente Colors tries to be about too much at once: history, culture, ethnic pride. The concluding author's note comes too late and only confuses.