Warmed By The Sun, Chilled Breeze

Carla M. Cherry's Warmed by the Sun, Chilled by the Breeze is a poignant and historically rich poetry collection that explores the intricate relationship between African diasporic and Indigenous peoples with water, boats, and maritime history. Inspired by her participation in the NYC Poets Afloat micro-residency, Cherry's work reflects on the labor, struggles, and resilience of those who built and traveled on ships, often under harrowing circumstances.The collection is divided into five sections, each anchored in a specific maritime experience or historical reflection. In "Looking Back," Cherry examines the painful legacy of water in Black history-how pools and open waters have been sites of exclusion, trauma, and cultural disconnection. Poems like A Great Sorrow and Plunge recall the barriers that kept African Americans from learning to swim and the deep historical scars left by the transatlantic slave trade.