Books

When a Purple Rose Blooms is a collection of poetry and essays that reflect writer Jeneé Darden’s journey through Black womanhood. Through heart and humor, Jeneé engages us in conversations about race, love, sex, and mental health. Like a rose, being a Black woman in this society comes with its thorns and beauty. Jeneé brings that complexity to every page.

 

Praise for When a Purple Rose Blooms:

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“Loving it from page one. Each story a jewel.” 

—Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times Bestselling Author

 

 

“When a Purple Rose Blooms is more than a series of essays and poems. Jeneé Darden’s debut collection is a homegrown Oakland spellbook, a womanist battle cry, a spiritual incantation of Black joy, self-love, and healing for contemporary African American sistren.”

– Aya de León, author of the Justice Hustler Series and director of Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley

 

 

“A wealth of wisdom, humor, grit, warmth, and sensuality. When a Purple Rose Blooms candidly shows a Black woman’s quest to embrace her entire self while navigating contemporary America. Very few works spit fire and water like this one. Darden gets to the core of what it means to feel without apology, love radically, and get Queened up while honoring the Queen in others as well.”

– Lyndsey Ellis, author of Bone Broth

 

 

“Jeneé Darden's When a Purple Rose Blooms is a daring book of poems and essays, depicting family, pop culture, self-love, racism, and other issues, especially those that impact women. This truth-telling book heralds with allusions, historical references, blues, East Oakland, and intergenerational camaraderie, praise, and ‘God's Image.’ These poems and essays tell us what's happening, and display much intelligence.”

– Lenard D. Moore, author of The Geography of Jazz, Associate Professor of English, University of Mount Olive