2016
When the Chant Comes
Topside Heliotrope
Kay Ulanday Barrett has been bringing his unique poetry to audiences for over a decade, unpicking vital political questions around race, sickness and disability and gender, and chronicling the everydayness of life in the U.S. Empire with humor, poignancy and inimitable vitality. Now at last a generous selection of his work will be available in print. Each of these poems is a brilliant little story. Taken together, they show a master craftsman at the top of their game.
Praise
“When The Chant Comes is fire medicine for the Soul: it calls forth a re-calibration of these rageful times that we are living in. Get this book. Get your healing ya’ll.”
— Sharon Bridgforth, author of the bull-jean stories
“These poems are embodied, thick and fluid. Read them with your body and spirit on notice.”
— Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitively
“When the chant comes, we arise, relieved that we aren’t alone. When the chant comes, we join in full-throated. When The Chant Comes is pure, queer love that refuses to apologize.”
— Vivek Shraya, author of She of the Mountains and God Loves Hair
“These poems are songs–aching, beautiful, necessary songs that transport and transform.“
— Eli Clare, author of Exile and Pride
“… so thank goodness for Kay Ulanday Barrett. I want to press this book into the hands of all my queer and trans fam. When The Chant Comes lifts me up with tender talk on loving, laughing, healing and creating, in a world that seems to run on shame… With humor, wisdom, and lush, playful language, Barrett insists on the okayness and sacredness of what we do to survive. “There has to be a chant for this,” he writes, and he comes through w/ a salty soothing amalgam of mother’s tears and QTPOC dance floor sweat. This book shifts things around in me.”
— Oliver Baez Bendorf, author of Spectral Wilderness
“When I closed When The Chant Comes, having read every poem once through, I could only be grateful. This book brought me into all my feelings, whether I wanted to be there or not. My gratitude goes to the strong voice that kept me company as we sat present in trauma, joy, need, connection, loneliness and glory. You should buy this book and take it in. Order two because, I assure you, someone needs it.”
— Eddie Maisonet, Winter Tangerine (Review)
MORE INFO
Author is available for appearances and interviews.
For Booking Inquiries: kaybarrett.net/booking