I was unprepared for the poetry of Hanif Abdurraqib. Every point made, somehow, a lament and an ode.

Expect everything from Josephine Baker, Whitney Houston to Wu Tang. Most chapters taught me an immense amount about Black pop culture - some I already knew well, others I had never heard about.

But its not just in how Abdurraqib notices and celebrates the beautiful tug of survival and dance, his words are also an offering, and invitation to look for yourself, to notice the way he does - all the dancing, all the surviving.

I felt I was learning an intimacy from someone still trying their hand at new versions (respectfully observing & imagining my own). In showing his own life’s vulnerability, most of all.

Gratitude to this for existing.

4.5/5