"Using Black performance as a loose organizing principle, Abdurraqib has written a brilliant, expansive, insightful, and personal book. There is something of Montaigne's penchant for humility and brilliance in equal measure; of Susan Sontag's use of cultural criticism to understand history and the self; of Zadie Smith's verbal wizardry, playfulness, and wide-ranging curiosity; and Ross Gay's sensitivity, sense of beauty and poignancy, and, ultimately, joyfulness. Another gift from this magical writer!"
--Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op Bookstore and 57th Street Books, Chicago, IL