Beyond the Watershed

A hybrid collection that explores the dual nature of water as both a destructive and healing force, mirroring the experiences of Black women and girls.

A hybrid collection of poetry and photography, Beyond the Watershed explores the various experiences of a Haitian American daughter and her Haitian immigrant mother. Nadia Alexis crafts a moving portrayal of generational trauma, domestic violence, survival, and reclamation, using stunning imagery drawing from the body, spirit, nature, and cityscapes. Alexis traces journeys to break free-documenting pain, making space for light, becoming a reckoning, connecting with spirit, and writing oneself into new seasons of safe waters, healthy love, and transformation. This vital debut affirms that there’s ＂nothing like the thirst / of Black girls who believe in their own dreams,＂ even as they navigate nonlinear paths to healing. ＂Sometimes the clouds speak to me / & tell me to look beyond the burning,＂ the daughter declares, as she charts her own path forward.

Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, photographer, and daughter of Haitian immigrants. Her writing is published in Poets & Writers, The Global South, Shenandoah, Wild Imperfections: An Anthology of Womanist Poems, and others.