Aint Never Not Been Black

Document Type

Monograph

Publication Date

10-13-2020

Publisher

Button Poetry Press

First page number:

1

Last page number:

100

Abstract

Ain’t Never Not Been Black foregrounds Black pleasure Black pain and Black love in unflinchingly Black ways. Engaging with themes of masculinity, racism, love, and joy, Johnson is at once critical and creative. His spoken word performance transfers effortlessly to the page, with poems that will encompass you. This is a book about blackness and survival, and how in America these are inseparable. In a world of individualism, who can you hold close? In a world of danger, what makes you feel safe? From a poem written in the form of a syllabus, to another about the time his grandmother literally saved his life, Johnson’s creative expression is constantly enacting the feminist mantra, “the personal is political.”

Keywords

Black American experience; Blackness and survival; Poetry

Disciplines

African American Studies | Arts and Humanities | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Language

English


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