The Peace Chronicles
Released on July 7, 2021
Documenting my last moments in the Vortex, The Peace Chronicles moves from a searing betrayal by Tyrone (Love from the Vortex & Other Poems) to my equanimity with it. These poems also record my peacemaking with my father, the tireless work of my ancestors, and celebrates the freedom that brings me tranquility, contentment and joy.
With beautiful endorsements by the amazing Mahogany L. Browne, Rio Cortez, Adam Falkner, Micah Bournes & Amelia Simone, my sophomore collection asks the questions: How can we learn from pain that grips us tightly? Where does love go to be laid to rest and when it rises again, do we name it resurrection, awakening, or reimagining?
"These poems are psalms and serve as brilliant beams to bring her readers safely home."
- Dr. Mahogany L. Browne, Author of Chlorine Sky
"A remarkable journey through healing and revelation. Dazzling lyrical meditations that leave the reader breathless."
- Rio Cortez, New York Times Bestselling Author of The ABCs of Black History
"A live wire scraped open by love. These poems shine.'"
- Adam Falkner, PhD, Author of The Willies
"Through 'forgiveness and a new way to love,' she writes poems of a free spirit; reminding the men who wounded her, 'I am not better than you, I just figured out my worth.'”
- Micah Bournes, Poet, Musician, Author of Here Comes This Dreamer
"Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s latest collection, The Peace Chronicles, stirs a range of emotions, but one feeling lingers longer than the rest: courage. Courage to be vulnerable, courage to face fear, courage to live an examined life, and courage to choose self-love as the foundation of all others over and over again. And what is courage but simply love or, more precisely, heart? Sealey-Ruiz models it for us by approaching the page with radical honesty and bold candor that adds a refreshing realness to her records. In doing so, she forges an impenetrable peace even from the center of a vortex, peace that not only settles her own soul, but radiates for the highest good of all who experience her words."
- Amelia Simone Herbert, Author of Contagious Acts of Freedom
Love from the Vortex &
Other Poems
Six Men. Three Decades. One Woman.
Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (Kaleidoscope Vibrations, LLC), is poet and scholar-activist Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s first full-length collection. An archeological exploration on love and intimacy, the book charts her journey of finding and losing love over the span of three decades with six different men who came into her life at various times, but also offers a universal take on what can happen when one seeks love and connection with others, and the lessons that follow when that connection and love is lost.
Revealing moments of happiness, fantasy, frustration, and eventually dealing with the dissolution of relationships, the book moves beyond these anticipated stages to moments of grace and beauty that come with the discovery and practice of self love, and a fuller understanding of what it means to truly love someone as your love yourself.
After it's release in 2020, for three weeks in a row, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems topped Amazon's print and Kindle lists for African American Poetry!
"Sealey-Ruiz opens a world to us in which we are reminded of the importance of speaking truthfully - with both love and rage-about our past and the lovers and loved ones who bring us to the present- and home."
- Jacqueline Woodson, Author of Red at the Bone
Book's Theme Song: "This is Love from the Vortex"
Music by: 80's Babies
Lovers of the Vortex
Concerts & Gallery Exhibits
"Love from the Vortex & Other Poems" and "The Peace Chronicles" have been showcased in featured exhibits at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Macy Gallery at Teachers College, Columbia University. Yolanda's poetry collections have also been celebrated through various musical interpretations, including a jazz concert at The National Jazz Museum, classical music concerts at The Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City, The Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee, and as part of the University of Mississippi's Sonic Explorations Concerts.
