The déjà vu Black dreams & Black time

In this radiant work, poet and performance artist Civil (Experiments in Joy) pays tribute to a legacy of Black artists while contending with the "twin moments of pandemic and uprising" after the murder of George Floyd. She creates a swirling collage of visual art, poetry, and prose that reflects her life as a Black creative reckoning with the repetitive nature of social crises in America. "I knew the time to second-guess myself or my purpose was over," she writes in the wake of Floyd's death. "It was time to show up to my deepest calling." An endlessly curious artistic investigator, Civil explores the way her love for graffiti "as urban flowering" has been complicated by public messages of hate speech and relates how, inspired by civil rights activist Josephine Baker, she once hoped to move to Paris to undergo her own artistic renaissance, but instead stayed in the Twin Cities, where she immersed herself in the arts scene and produced her own performance art pieces, segments of which are reproduced in the book. Taken together, her musings act as a radical reclamation of place and identity, and challenge the "pandemic of white supremacy." The result is an evocative work of art that brings to life an era ripe for a revolution. (Feb.)

An exuberant collection of texts and artifacts by a Black feminist performance artist. In a disarmingly candid postscript, Civil, who teaches creative writing at CalArts, discusses her decision not to use a capital B for the word black when referring to race. Though she understands the impetus and values the gesture, "the déjà vu is my book…an attempt to reflect my voice, my inner life, and something about my time….I reserve the right to make different choices myself (even within the span of this text). I'm down for lowercase blackness, capital Blackness, all caps BLACKNESS, wild-style bLaCkNeSs, nourbeSe-N b l a c k N e s s, and other combinations." An unwavering commitment to upholding a unique personal aesthetic while exploring black dreams is the driving force behind this unusual book, a kind of archive or scrapbook of performance pieces, scripts, poems, conversations, collaborations, lectures, and essays. As in the postscript, the narrative touches at many points on the tensions created by recent changes in the way we use and interpret language. One standout piece, "Blue Flag," is a palindrome essay that unpacks the convoluted story of Civil's being asked to write an introduction to a reissue of Wanda Coleman's 1977 chapbook, Art in the Court of the Blue Fag. Throughout the book, Civil also provides inspiring instructions and DIY rituals for readers. For example, she shares the advice of a friend who was trying to help her cut through indecision about taking an academic position. He told her to repeat to herself, "I'm Gabrielle Civil. Now start acting like it." To readers, the author suggests, "Switch out my name for yours, then repeat it. I'm ____________. Now start acting like it. See what happens. A speech act and a spell." To be read, as the author suggests, like a dream: Garner what you can, and hopefully something new will unfurl in your mind. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.