Research Catalog

Title

I'm telling the truth, but I'm lying : essays / Bassey Ikpi.

Author

Ikpi, Bassey

Publication

New York : Harper Perennial, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 257 pages; 21 cm

Summary

• In I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying Bassey Bassey Ikpi explores her life--as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist--through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her own truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy. From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma, Bassey Ikpi lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression--sometimes within the course of a single day. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO's Def Poetry Jam, channeling her life into art. But beneath the façade of the confident performer, Bassey's mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II. In I'm Telling the Truth, But I'm Lying, Bassey Ikpi breaks open our understanding of mental health by giving us intimate access to her own. Exploring shame, confusion, medication, and family in the process, Bassey looks at how mental health impacts every aspect of our lives--how we appear to others, and more importantly to ourselves--and challenges our preconception about what it means to be "normal." Viscerally raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are--and the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie.
• Ikpi explores her life as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist-- all through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma she lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression-- sometimes within the course of a single day. In opening our understanding of mental health, Ikpi challenges our preconception about what it means to be "normal." -- adapted from page [i].

Subject

• Ikpi, Bassey
• People with bipolar disorder > Biography
• Bipolar disorder
• Nigerian Americans > Biography

Genre/Form

• Essays.
• Autobiographies.
• Biographies.

Contents

Portrait of a face at forty -- The first essay is to prove to you that I have a childhood -- When they come for me -- The hands that held me -- Young girls they do get weary -- Yaka -- Becoming a liar -- Tehuti -- The quiet before -- Take two for pain -- Like a war -- This is what happens -- What it feels like -- Beauty in the breakdown -- It has a name -- Side effects may include -- Life sentence -- As hopeless as smoke -- The day before -- We don't wear blues -- Some days are fine -- When we bleed -- Searching for magic.

Call Number

Sc D 19-925

ISBN

• 9780062698346
• 0062698346

OCLC

1101639650

Author

Ikpi, Bassey, author.

Title

I'm telling the truth, but I'm lying : essays / Bassey Ikpi.

Publisher

New York : Harper Perennial, [2019]

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Local Subject

Black author.

Research Call Number

Sc D 19-925