The Art of Breathing by Djénéba Diallo

The Art of Breathing is a poetry collection by Djénéba Diallo, published by Qwani in 2026 with a preface by Mariagoreth Charles. The book moves through five sections; Heritage, The Uncontrollable, Skin, Change, and Rest, that together trace an emotional journey from rootedness through rupture toward healing.

The collection opens with a poem called “The Homecoming,” which sets its tone immediately: the speaker asks for raw, unembellished truth rather than comforting platitudes, and that demand for honesty carries through the rest of the book. The first section, Heritage, is anchored in Bamako, Mali, and dwells on childhood memory, ancestral language, and the ache of distance from one’s homeland. From there, The Uncontrollable shifts into harder territory — structural racism, the dangers and losses tied to migration, silence around taboo subjects, and the weight of generational trauma passed down through families. The middle section, Skin, softens in register, turning toward intimacy, friendship, romantic and platonic love, and poems that celebrate Black womanhood and beauty on its own terms rather than through external standards.

The fourth section, Change, is more reflective and forward-looking, dealing with personal transformation, creative purpose, forgiveness, and the work of reclaiming one’s own narrative from judgment imposed by others. The book closes with Rest, a section that frames peace and self-compassion not as a retreat but as an arrival, the destination the whole collection has been moving toward.

Breath itself is the connective thread running through all five sections: breathing as an act of survival, then resistance, and finally rest. According to the preface, the poems grow out of Diallo’s own lived experience across four continents, including periods of hardship and displacement, rather than out of abstract inspiration — which gives the collection its confessional, unguarded voice throughout.