Ain't Never Not Been Black Topaz Winters In his debut full length

In his debut full length collection

this spare but rich collection weaves an emotionally complex tapestry that includes bits of history and Biblical tradition as well as fragments of our calamitous present

drawing them into adolescence

from space to climate change

one that doesn’t truly feel like yours

Ain't Never Not Been Black Topaz Winters In his debut full lengthJavon Johnson, 2020 Ain't Never Not Been Black foregrounds Black pleasure Black pain and Black love in unflinchingly Black ways. Engaging with themes of masculinity, racism, love, and joy, Johnson is at once critical and creative. His spoken word performance transfers effortlessly to the page, with poems that will encompass you. This is a book about blackness and survival, and how in America these are inseparable. In a world of individualism, who can