Here La Shaun looks at worlds; the public ones and secret ones, offers recipes for redemption, and spells out dreams that mean to save us all. I read her work and remembered what it meant to be young and raw and hopeful and hurt and desperate, absolutely desperate to heal—myself, my loves, my block. Readers will, I believe, find themselves, some piece of themselves, in a line here, a stanza there, because at the end of the day, La Shaun Moore tells the truth. And telling the truth is where each one of our words, songs, rhymes, and poems must begin.

asha bandele,
Author, Mother, Woman

La Shaun phoenix Moore has written risky and soul-searching works in this collection of interpersonal tales.  In her first book, The Absence of Smoke & Mirrors, she uncloaks the dependencies of young black culture, ‘sister-stories’ you can relate to and doubts that can no longer go unsaid.  Moore takes the ugly and mediocre that we hate about ourselves only to make it mythically wondrous, “Jungle Jump Rope Goddess.” To be loved, beautiful, and cherished as we are is still, today, the black woman’s incantation and Moore unveils her plea for solace.

Christina Archer,
2006 Cave Canem Fellow, Poet, Woman

La Shaun phoenix Moore is a Poet. In the most unearthing way, we as human scholars/researchers of literature, find ourselves referencing a nostalgic stone canon of poets who are untouchable by death or majority race or some other criteria created by few who do not relate to the greater population. For me, the greater population is humanity in one sense and spirit-souls in the other. Both can merge and become one, and it is in this definition, we can understand the word POET - someone who can take the average and create something extraordinary; someone who can take the normal and create unusual; someone who can turn weird and wrong into witty and right; someone who is never far from the Creator and always moving in the spirit; someone who simply “Is.” In that sense La Shaun is in her full existence to operate as a creator of art. She is willing to learn, to love, to let go, to receive & give. AND to create more all-over-again for healing and replenishing. You will see this in her writing. That in this literary canon of Poetry is a POET.

Traci Evadne Currie, Ph.D.
Educator, Poet, Woman

Upon meeting LaShaun, she exuded this confidence that seemed almost unattainable. Much like her work, once you spend enough time with it…pull back the layers bit by bit…you realize she’s complicated, and simple. Vulnerable and innocent. Smart, and sassy. The poetry here digs deeper. To the core of how we as black women, as black people, as artists, as reflections of the Creator rise through our ashes in spite of the scars the flames leave behind. Much like the phoenix…we all have wings. These words help us to fly.

Aricka Epiphany Foreman
Poet, Cave Canem Fellow, Woman