A BOOK REVIEW BY TORI CANNING

I met Uzodinma hosting a reading in Bushwick. He was as charmingly provocative and genuine, as he was at 20, compiling House of Hunger. (If a bit more wise– phew!) I am honored to receive this zine from its writer, with years between us and its conception. 

I’m considering this novella-style zine in the context of youth and growth, from my budding writer vantage. The pertinence and timelessness of early adulthood is reassuring. HoH is an assemblage of moments & memories, cut & pasted, tangible & material. Its format is immediate– even urgent. 

Throughout the cozy, homey, maybe awkward reading, Uzodinma committed to a bit– selling this book, leaning into the salesman, though never lacking realness! An endearing and enduring feat. cha-ching! 

A few weeks passed, as did the books I’d been reading (Twilight and Autoportrait). I grabbed HoH for my subway ride to & fro a dinner date. In my phone notes (a place I often write and am currently writing) I jotted the following–

(excerpts)

photocopy– was it aesthetic choice, or practical way to edit/print? ❤ analogue/digital.

contemporaneous w/ university, or recorded memory?

unconventionally punctuated, yet reads seamlessly. props!!

fave sentence — ‘hands in the air, or not even.’

major takeaway– dichotomy of universality and specificity of youth

anyways, cool book! ttyl. 

he replied generously– 

(excerpts)

No yeah, I started off way back in the early 2000’s making zines, handing them out for free on the subway etc. Had no idea what I was doing… Now that I’m printing my own books, I paste it up, scan the pages and then use indesign to lay it out. Like the best of both worlds.

…I’m almost 50 now, my son is about to turn 17 in a few weeks, so, yeah, it’s interesting watching him, trying to decipher which aspects I can actually remember and identify with, and where’s that separation…

A few years older than young Uzo, a year into luv letters, (my own fragmented blog-style vignettes), I’m encouraged by the undying characteristics of youth-dom. A sense of community in a fleeting time/place. It’s promising and heartbreaking to grow up, flawed & flawless. I feel grateful to be included in the defective, difficult, and developing dynamics of HoH. Thank you Uzo, for your earnestness and humor. 

As I write my own words/worlds, I aspire to be inviting and sincere, documenting time passing, myself growing, my relationships twisting and becoming (and becoming less appealing). Writing is sharing, not upstanding. 

tori canning is obsessed with text and textiles, letters (the shape of) and letters (via mail), books (as object and info), writing, bodies in (and out of) clothing, glue and glitter, music and its movement, labor as dance (dance as labor), sitting at the kitchen table.  She has a silly little BFA from a beautiful Philly art school that she’s admittedly proud of, though has yet to provide fame, glory and riches.

Uzodinma Okehi Your number 10-shirt, your Afrobeat black president, circa 1994. House of Hunger, available now at: bokoye.com