Every Where Alien

<p><strong><em>Every Where Alien</em> 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 <em>The Tradition</em></strong></p><p><strong>In this dazzling collection 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.</strong></p><p><em>Every Where Alien</em> 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.</p><p><em>Every Where Alien</em> catapults us to New York City mid-1990s early-2000s to rebroadcast the black queer creative genius of marginalized communities. Walrond questions narrow conceptions of alien as outsider to explore how feelings of alienation also call us toward our shared humanity. </p><p>In holographic odes 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. </p><p>Featuring gorgeous black-and-white illustrations <em>Every Where Alien</em> 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 is a passionate reminder that through our dreams and determination we create our own utopias. </p><p><em>Every Where Alien</em> is the first publication out of the joint program between Amistad and Moore Black Press the press for the radical black imagination.</p>