Ber-henda Williams, Memoirs of the Human Experience and Everything in Between

The writer within can turn the ordinary and everyday into a personal glance at the soul. In Memoirs of the Human Experience, Ber-henda Williams offers this glimpse at faith, frustration, and negotiating the “Traffic Jam” of them:

“Lord, I am stuck in traffic and
I cannot get out. Road work up ahead…
So I took a wrong turn, went my own way.
So now I am in so deep on the wrong side
of right, praying for a second chance.
In the midst of the morning commute, I have gone from
Misery to ministry.”

Ber-henda is a feminine force in Detroit poetry, hosting the monthly “Poetry, Pages and Scribes” reading at Southfield Public Library, blogging on PPS about topics, poets, and artists to know, and taking her passion for poetry to many venues in metro Detroit.

The conflicts of Memoirs of the Human Experience are large and small, full of faith, family, hope, anger, frustration and love. Ber-henda’s poetry is full of the wonder and the acknowledgement that her experiences are both unique and shared. In her foreword, she receives advice and encouragement from strangers on an elevator while telling her best friend about a text-message breakup. Many love poems, from “Present Indicative” to “RIP” and “Suite Love”, paint a picture of love in metaphors of faith, of sensuality, of hope, and the transition from frustration to heartache to healing.

Her connection to people, especially to family, friends, and former students is rich and vivid. Alice P, her great-aunt immortalized looking through “her cat eye glasses with coal black eyes, the kind with diamonds in the middle” would nurture her, talk, listen, and “I straightened her hair; she straightened my soul.” In “Wash My Hair,” she recalls a father-daughter ritual in a wish of a simpler, more innocent time. In “Me Llamo Mama,” Ber-henda reminds her students that she is not their mama, but pulled in with affection and enthusiasm to listen to their stories and cheer on their victories.

Essays on everyday occurrences, on thoughtful, journal-like entries, also bring Memoirs to Life. In “Espiritu Feminus,” she points out that wisdom, in Greek, is a feminine word, despite the forefront of Greek philosophers, and the time-stamp of women of courage from Delilah to Alice Walker, and the wisdom that comes with negotiating all that is womanhood. In “Ninety Degrees of Separation,” Ber-henda paints a loving, humorous, and honest look at a road trip with her lively grandmother to visit longtime friends on one’s 90th birthday…and a surprising trio of essentials to a good and happy life.

While Ber-henda professes to often being shy about revealing herself through her work, Memoirs is a glimpse into the journal of her heart, mind and soul—read, savor, and “meet” her along the way, and share the human experience.