Revolutions Are Made of Love
The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs
Sun Yung Shin and Mélina Mangal’s innovative dual biography Revolutions Are Made of Love, combines paired poems with beautiful illustrations.
Activists James and Grace Lee Boggs built a lasting social justice and civil rights movement in Detroit, where they met as adults and married. Poetic treatments of their parallel stories of growing up, finding work, and developing their interest in social issues appear: Grace’s story begins in Providence, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Chinese immigrants who needed to overcome discrimination to open a restaurant. James’s starts four years later in Alabama. He was the grandson of enslaved Americans and spent much of his childhood working to help his family get by. After Grace and James worked on a labor newspaper together, they teamed up for good.
The prose poems are accessible and clear, with a pleasant cadence and beauty. The two activists are well distinguished by the poets’ differing treatments of them, mirroring how the couple used their particular experiences to inform programs like Detroit Summer for teenage activists and Detroiters for Dignity to set aside food and other resources for elderly neighbors.
The illustrations are also outstanding throughout, with bright colors and rich details. An image of James working in a busy Detroit factory during World War II evokes the era’s Thomas Hart Benton paintings, while another of Grace being told to vacate a train seat evokes the experience of Rosa Parks. Other images deepen their characterizations, as with a beautiful painting of young Grace seeing a famous Asian actress onscreen.
Revolutions Are Made of Love is a creative dual biography in poems—a meaningful story about love and partnership.
Reviewed by
Jeff Fleischer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
