Glance
, the second collection of poetry by Chanda Feldman, explores the experiences of a Black and white and Jewish American family that moves abroad to find respite from contemporary racial violence. Spanning diverse landscapes in Israel and the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, the poems grapple with the inability to escape brutalities and prejudices, asking where—and if—it is possible to find a sense of home and community. Feelings of belonging and estrangement, safety and threat, as well as questions of identity, both of the self and the family, drive the speaker to look inward and outward in order to navigate the world.
Though never breaking free from their attendant anxieties, Feldman’s poems revel in the beauty of environment and place as they traverse global spaces, from the sea to the city, from the playground to the museum, from orchards to the synagogue, seeking a home in the world.