CRUEL/CRUEL

Dior J. Stephens

CRUEL/CRUEL is the manifestation of a Black, queer voice grappling with the intricacies of (un)belonging and identity. These poems use genres of queerness and race to reckon with the pervasive power of oppressive institutions, shaped by art and a soundtrack of Black musical traditions of resistance: from jazz to soul to experimental to hip hop. A hybrid visual and literary object, CRUEL/CRUEL feels relentlessly present, and yet emphasizes the archival and documentary as intrinsic to our personal and collective survivals.

'Dior J. Stephens knows the body is a reluctant archive. Stephens tends to traces of the everyday, knotting them into memory to patch a self frayed and fuming under the gaze of white heteropatriarchy. Yet, Stephens tracks how we buckle with pleasure. To read this book is to slink into a plum-black night where we hear 'the ghost rivers of Harlem play / light patches / in your good ear.' Listen.' – Divya Victor