Black Queer Hoe

By Britteney Black Rose Kapri and Danez Smith

From an award-winning and “stunningly talented” writer, reflections on the line between sexual freedom and sexual exploitation (Samantha Irby, New York Times–bestselling author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life).
 
Women’s sexuality is often used as a weapon against them. In this refreshing, unapologetic debut, award-winning performance poet and playwright Britteney Black Rose Kapri lends her unmistakable voice to fraught questions of identity, sexuality, reclamation, and power in a world that refuses black queer women permission to define their own lives and boundaries. Black Queer Hoe is a powerful intervention into important and ongoing conversations.

“In a debut crackling with energy, honesty, and wit, Kapri moves to reclaim elements of language surrounding women’s sexuality, especially that of black women . . . Kapri assails the ways social norms are routinely used to blame girls and women for the moral failures of boys and men. Embracing the intimacy of a confessional and the sting of a viral tweet, Kapri unabashedly celebrates the various facets of her self and refuses to serve as anyone’s martyr.” —Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781608469536

Book preview

BLACK QUEER HOE

The Breakbeat Poets Series

The BreakBeat Poets series, curated by Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall, is committed to work that brings the aesthetic of hip-hop practice to the page. These books are a cipher for the fresh, with an eye always to the next. We strive to center and showcase some of the most exciting voices in literature, art, and culture.

BreakBeat Poets Series titles include:

The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall

This is Modern Art: A Play, Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval

The Breakbeat Poets Vol II: Black Girl Magic, edited by Mahogany Browne, Jamila Woods, and Idrissa Simmonds

Human Highlight, Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval

On My Way to Liberation, H. Melt

Citizen Illegal, José Olivarez

The Breakbeat Poets Vol III: Halal if You Hear Me, edited by Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo

There are Trans People Here, H. Melt

Commando, E’mon Lauren

© 2018 Britteney Black Rose Kapri

Published in 2018 by

Haymarket Books

P.O. Box 180165

Chicago, IL 60618

773-583-7884

www.haymarketbooks.org

[e-mail]

ISBN: 978-1-60846-953-6

Trade distribution:

In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com

In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca

In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com

All other countries, Ingram Publisher Services International,

[e-mail]

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Printed in Canada by union labor.

Cover design by Rachel Cohen. Cover photograph, Nadiyah (2017) by Maya Iman. www.mayaiman.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

contents

Foreword by Danez Smith

tindr

reasons imma Hoe

zaddy

bad feminist

shawty with the ass

open letter to the mothers who shield their daughters from looking at me

an incomplete list: of women i should apologize to

what raych means when she says Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch

before they can use it against you

Bitch

real women have

Queer enough

pansexual

to every nigga that told me their dick belonged to me

to every nigga i ever yelled out this pussy is yours to, you welcome

to the nigga who tweeted we need to stop glorifying fat people while secretly receiving my nudes behind his girlfriend’s back

the day my nudes