POWERFUL
“In the brave and unfaltering poems of Shawn Aveningo Sanders’ What She Was Wearing, the speaker looks back on a brutal assault that happened to her during college—a gang rape by four fraternity brothers—and the resulting harm caused to the speaker’s psyche. These poems are honest and disturbing, yet ultimately freeing, as the speaker takes back control of the narrative, reclaiming her power, emboldened in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Fellow survivors will relate to the rage and indignation, as well as the complex emotional aftermath. Take, for instance, these lines from “The Day I Saw My Rapist at the Corner Texaco,” in which the speaker is at the gas pump, with her three young children in the car: “I remember holding the fuel nozzle in my hand, / staring at him for what seemed an eternity. // I was bisected— / half of me desperate / to spray gasoline across the concrete divide / and light a match, // while the other half / wanted to peel away my skin / to swap with another human to hide.” These powerful and moving poems are courageous, and Aveningo Sanders should be commended for sharing them, for such stories are part of our empathetic humanity, and without them, we would be unable to move forward in the spirit of understanding and healing.”

“Wow. I thought from the title that this chapbook was about fashion, dresses, shoes, jewelry, ordinary stuff. No, this is the story of the poet being gang-raped at a fraternity party, and it hits hard. She was wearing a toga. These poems are searingly direct, filled with the details she kept quiet for years. Aveningo takes us from the event to many years later when she talks to her grown daughters about what happened and what they need to do to be safe. She employs various styles, including free verse, and erasure poems.

Of all the writing inspired by the Me Too movement, this is some of the strongest.”