The award-winning, genre-crossing writer demonstrates her power as
a funkadelic and formidable feminist voice in this rich and beautiful
collection of verse and image--a multi-part retrospective that
traverses time, space, and reality to illuminate the expansiveness of
Black femme lives.
Side
Notes from the Archivist is a preservation of Black culture
viewed through a feminist lens. The Archivist leads readers through
poems that epitomize youthful renditions of a Black girl coming of
age in Philadelphia's pre-funk '80s; episodic adventures of "the
Black Girl" whose life is depicted through the white gaze; and
selections of verse evincing affection for self and testimony to the
magnificence within Black femme culture at-large.
Every
poem in Side Notes elevates and honestly illustrates the
buoyancy of Blackness and the calamity of Black lives on earth. In
her uniquely embracing and experimental style, Anastacia-Reneé
documents these truths as celebrations of diverse subjects, from
Solid Gold to halal hotdogs; as homages and reflections on
iconic images, from Marsha P. Johnson to Aunt Jemima; and as
critiques of systemic oppression forcing some to countdown their last
heartbeat.
From
internet "Fame" to the toxicity of the white gaze, Side
Notes from the Archivist cements Anastacia-Reneé role as a
leading light in the womanist movement--an artist whose work is in
conversation with advocates of Black culture and thought such as
Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, and Nikki Giovanni.