The poems in Tender chronicle the experiences of Black people, especially of Black women, in their quest for self- determination and their desire to live full, complex, unencumbered lives. Employing her skills as a documentary filmmaker, Hamilton combines reclaimed historical accounts, memories and stories to engage subjects such as intergenerational trauma, racial violence, the silencing of girls and women, and the loss of children. Running throughout her work is a yearning for genuine equality and freedom, and an understanding that a better future begins with engaging honestly with our past.

Sylvia D. Hamilton is a filmmaker and writer whose awards include a Gemini and the Portia White Prize. Her poetry has been published in The Dalhousie Review, West Coast Line, The Great Black North and Untying the Apron: Daughters Remember Mothers of the Fifties. She was a contributor to, and co-editor of, We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays In African Canadian Women’s History. She lives in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia.

Sylvia D. Hamilton's profile page