Ruby Boddie

Ruby Boddie is a poet and writer. Her creative aesthetic straddles the Caribbean and the USA. She embeds the religious philosophy of African-inspired syncretic beliefs within her first novella, “Mama’s Hair”. The story is literary fiction that draws on the consequential colonial history of Cuba and the religious and social traditions of wider Afro-Caribbean culture. It is narrated by “Love”, formerly known as “Lavinia” , who, as an elder, earns the title of “Mama Grancy”. Love sacrifices her relationships with her native country and her clan to manifest a destiny of her own imagining, in the absence of personal models to follow. Love is determined to find her authentic path to self-fulfillment and personal sovereignty. She boldly decides to throw it all away in order to achieve the ultimate prize. The story depicts the inevitable clashes arising from expectations and labels imposed by class, identity, immigrant status and, even, by motherhood. Ultimately, her reward is to engage the world on her own terms.