A visionary anthology that examines and reimagines the archive as a form of collective record-keeping, featuring work by Douglas Kearney, Brenda Shaughnessy, Mahogany L. Browne, and many new and emerging voices.
Inspired by Naima Yael Tokunow’s research into the Black American record (and its purposeful scarceness),
Permanent Record asks, what do we gain when we engage with our flawed cultural systems of remembrance? How does questioning and creating a deep relationship to the archive, and in some cases, spinning thread from air where there is none, allow us to prefigure the world that we want? Including reflections on identity and language, diasporic and first generation lived experiences, and responses to the ways the record upholds harm and provides incomplete understandings,
Permanent Record hopes to reframe what gets to be a part of collective remembrance, exploring “possibilities for speculating beyond recorded multiplicity.”
Arvustused
"The work in this anthology is rich, evocative and very powerful, even more impressive when one considers that the bulk of the list of contributors are emerging, with but a single full-length title or less to their credit. Tokunow offers an expansive list of contributors from all corners, with an eye for language, purpose; one would think if you want a sense of the landscape of who you should be reading next, Tokunows list of contributors to Permanent Record is entirely that." rob mclennan
"The books record, including the terrific image and text work by Douglas Kearney and Cari Muñoz. . . writes its name in its reader." Poetry Northwest
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Naima Yael Tokunow is a writer, educator, artist, and editor, living in New Mexico. Her work focuses on exploring Black queer femme identity, kinship, and futurity. She is the author of three chapbooks, MAKE WITNESS (2016), Planetary Bodies (2019), out from Black Warrior Review, and Shadow Black, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown for the Frontier Digital Chapbook Prize in 2020. She proudly edits the Black Voice Series for Puerto del Sol and reads for POETRY Magazine. For selections of her work, visit naimaytokunow.com. She is blessed to be Black and alive.