Black & Boring

This collection of poetry and flash fiction was written when I was 24 years old. It was inspired heavily by the two years I spent living in Southgate — a blue collar suburb of Detroit — before moving to Chicago to complete my second year of grad school at DePaul. Most of my time in Southgate was uneventful. I spent those two years playing basketball, writing raps, taking pictures, watching indie movies with Aaron, smoking weed, skateboarding, and walking through different parks in the area. My life was more mundane and repetitive than it had ever been, but I’d never felt freer. This collection was written to celebrate my days of being Black and boring and combat the widespread belief — rooted in white supremacy — that Blackness is inherently exciting. Consequently, every piece included in this collection paints a vivid image of the Afromundane by showing readers what it looks like when Black people are allowed to exist without being eventful