speculation, n.

By Shayla Lawz

Poems that imagine a world beyond the prevailing public speculation on Black death.
 
Shayla Lawz’s debut collection, speculation, n., brings together poetry, sound, and performance to challenge our spectatorship and the reproduction of the Black body. It revolves around a central question: what does it mean—in the digital age, amidst an inundation of media—to be a witness? Calling attention to the images we see in the news and beyond, these poems explore what it means to be alive and Black when the world regularly speculates on your death. The speaker, a queer Black woman, considers how often her body is coupled with images of death and violence, resulting in difficultly moving toward life. Lawz becomes the speculator by imagining what might exist beyond these harmful structures, seeking ways to reclaim the Black psyche through music, typography, and other pronunciations of the body, where expressions of sexuality and the freedom to actively reimagine is made possible. speculation, n. contends with the real—a refracted past and present—through grief, love, and loss, and it speculates on what could be real if we open ourselves to expanded possibilities.
 
speculation, n. won the 2020 Autumn House Poetry Prize, selected by Ilya Kaminsky.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Autumn House Press
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637680063

Book preview

speculation, n.

by SHAYLA LAWZ

PITTSBURGH, PA

For my mother and father

In memory of Yvette Beaufort and Nialiah Morris

Then I found I needed words again. Then I found I needed something else. I needed people. As instruments. To be part of the cosmic reordering of the universe. To heal the black/diasporic imagination with counter histories that destabilize the West and make room for a way of life that serves us here or lets us go elsewhere in peace.

–Harmony Holiday

I hope the grave don’t find me.

–Noname

speculation, n.

An Autumn House Book

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021 by Shayla Lawz

Interior layout & design: Shayla Lawz

Typesetting & technical execution: Kinsley Stocum

Author photo: Elena Mudd

Printed in the USA

Cover art: Lorna Simpson

Speechless, 2017

Collage and ink on paper

11 x 8 1/2 in (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

Framed: 12 3/8 x 10 x 1 1/2 in (30.5 x 24.1 x 3.8 cm)

© Lorna Simpson

Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Photo credit: James Wang

ISBN: 978-1-637680-05-6

LCCN: 2021939801

No part of this book can be reproduced in any form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews or essays.

For information about permission to reprint, contact:

Autumn House Press

5530 Penn Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

www.autumnhouse.org

All Autumn House books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the international standards of permanent books intended for purchase by libraries.

Autumn House Press and Autumn House are registered trademarks owned by Autumn House Press, a nonprofit corporation whose mission is the publication and promotion of poetry and other fine literature.

Autumn House Press receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

ISBN-13: 978-1-63768-006-3 (electronic)

CONTENTS

INTRUCTIONS FOR VIEWING

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Coda

MEDIA CREDITS