Every Where Alien [9780063377998]

Overview

“Every Where Alien is a book that asks for interaction and understanding. . . . Brad Walrond defies aesthetic boundaries to write the poems that only he could write, poems that travel time and space for a truth that is sometimes painful and always necessary.”—Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Tradition

In this dazzling collection of LGBTQ+ poetry, the poet, author, and conceptual/performance artist traces blackness, queerness, and desire through the legacy of 1990s and early 2000s New York City underground art movements, illuminating how their roots and undertold histories inspire today’s culture.

Every Where Alien is Brad Walrond’s dazzling afro-futuristic, afro-surrealist journey through New York City’s underground art movements, including the New Black Arts Movement, Black Rock Coalition, the Underground House Music-Dance community, the HIV/AIDS Black Queer Artivists, and the House Ballroom Scene.

Every Where Alien catapults us to New York City mid-1990s, early-2000s to rebroadcast the black queer creative genius of marginalized communities. Walrond, a master of political poetry, questions narrow conceptions of "alien" as outsider, to explore how feelings of alienation also call us toward our shared humanity.

In holographic odes of searing Afrosurrealism, he pays homage to creative forces both living and dead. Giants like James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Octavia Butler, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka, belong to the same space-time as Larry Levan, Erykah Badu, Vernon Reid, Yasiin Bey, Greg Tate. Here Patti Smith, Kendrick Lamar, Kalief Browder, Willi Ninja, Jeff Mills, Sarah Jones, share the same air.

Featuring gorgeous, black-and-white illustrations, Every Where Alien traces our common and conflicting identities to vindicate why human beings are always greater than the sums of our parts. Walrond is a rebellious virtuoso wielding empathy, grief, anger, and grit in equal measure. This triumphant collection, a passionate reminder from the heart of the Black arts movement, shows that through our dreams and determination, we create our own utopias.

Every Where Alien is the first publication out of the joint program between Amistad and Moore Black Press, the press for the radical black imagination.

This collection is a time machine, a manifesto, and a love letter to the movements that shaped a generation.

• Afrofuturist Poetry: Journey through a dazzling, surrealist New York City where giants like Octavia Butler and James Baldwin share the same space-time as Yasiin Bey and Kendrick Lamar.
• NYC Underground Art: Explore the legacy of the Black Rock Coalition, the Underground House Music-Dance community, and the House Ballroom Scene that defined 90s and early 2000s culture.
• Black Queer Voices: A rebellious and virtuosic collection that traces the intersections of blackness, queerness, and desire with empathy, grief, and grit.
• Conceptual Performance Art: Featuring gorgeous black-and-white illustrations, these poems translate the energy of performance onto the page, creating a unique visual and literary experience.