Elisabet Velasquez

In 1990s Bushwick, Brooklyn, 14-year-old Sarai tries to make sense of herself, her neighborhood, and the world she is growing up in.

Sarai is the youngest of three kids born to a single mother who survived domestic violence and who fights tooth and nail to keep her kids fed and alive. Velasquez’s debut novel is a collection of raw ruminations that together form Sarai’s heart-wrenching, honest, and critical narrative. With an in-your-face, call-everything-out flavor, the poetry begs to be show more read out loud to appreciate the full force of its rhythmic cadence and thought-provoking, sophisticated critiques. These include pointed commentary on teachers who work but don’t live in Bushwick and newspapers that only tell one side of the story. Velasquez, a Bushwick native herself, tells a real, on-the-block narrative of the neighborhood through Sarai, with biting pieces that masterfully weave themes of religion, street life, sexual assault, language, poverty, the complexities of Boricua/Puerto Rican/Nuyorican identity, and so much more. Nine of the pieces are “poems in conversation” with ones written by Jacqueline Woodson, Sandra Cisneros, Nikki Giovanni, Nuyorican poet Mariposa, and others. This element, coupled with the diversity of poetic forms, from blackout poetry to stream of consciousness, makes this a gem for pleasure reading as well as classroom use. All primary characters are Puerto Rican.

Raw, breathtaking, and brilliant. (author’s note, "poems in conversation" credits) (Verse novel. 14-adult)

-Kirkus Reviews show less

"What if making happens every day. To each of us. Differently."

Thank you so much to @elisabetvelasquezpoetry for this #ownvoices gem.

I finished this one last night and my heart just swells with Bushwick pride. Elisabet Velasquez put Bushwick on her back and showed the world who we are, what we've survived and how we continue to make it. As I was reading I had to keep pausing and sharing bits and pieces with friends and family. I couldn't help but savor every word, every poem, every thought show more and every reference. I have waited my whole life for a book to capture exactly what it means to come from Bushwick, to die in Bushwick and to survive Bushwick.

What really struck me were how vivid the memories and references were. As I was reading, I could hear Elisabet's voice and it felt like she has been writing this book her entire life. I still live in Bushwick and every mention of certain places that still exist and are still holding the neighborhood down, took me back to childhood. It made me feel pride in my people who are still here pushing back against the gentrification that wants eliminate and erase us.

Sarai's experiences were so similar to my own, at times I felt like her story was my own. Sarai's story is also the embodiment of the struggle of my people to simply just be seen and live to see another day so they can "make it." Although it's a book in verse, the themes explored are so deep: poverty, violence, mental illness and addiction, misogyny, cultural identity, religious hypocrisy, gentrification, "crimes" of survival, & sexualization of girls.

When We Make It is the hug I didn't know I needed. It's the affirmation that the lives of Puerto Ricans matter and that survival is who we are. By the ending I was sobbing but out of pure release. When We Make It helped me release the breath I didn't realize I had been holding all these years. I was left with the feeling that finally someone sees us and knows what we are still doing to try to "make it" and simply exist.

If you're from Bushwick, it mandatory that you GET THIS BOOK AND BUY A COPY FOR A FRIEND. It will change your life. There's nothing left to say but PRE-ORDER ASAP! show less

I listen to Velasquez read her book. Wow! This one packed a punch, the things that Sarai goes through and writes about in her 16 years. It's not for the faint of heart. But Velasquez drops the trauma interspersed in powerful poetry. There is struggle with identity, life options, and poverty. But there is also hope and joy.

Deals with poverty, drug use, teen pregnancy, racism, and gentrification. In my opinion, the poetry format gave me as a reader a little more emotional separation from the trauma. Overall, not bad.