Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems

Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems

By M Mick Powell

Paperback
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A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving personal loss with the life stories of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Phyllis Hyman, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, and others to explore sexuality, survival, queer mourning, and the afterlives of stardom

"Poet m. mick powell's debut collection . . . resurrects their vivid lives and artistry to paint a more humanizing picture of their legacy."--USA Today

"I made, of my bones, an earth for you: turned the oceans
your favorite shade of light, that deepened, nearly bruised
dusk. Reflected in my palms, what I've made into water
glows amethyst"

In m. mick powell's polyphonic, haunting debut, a chorus of voices conjures up intimate pop herstories to map how the poet's queer Black girlhood was molded by their memory. With tender reverence, powell meditates on the deaths of her own beloveds while reflecting on the many stages of an icon's life: How did these women challenge conventional representations of Black femininity and transform the musical landscape? How did they navigate abuse and alienation in the limelight? How do the mythologies that survive them establish afterlives of queer femme possibility?

Through sensual imagery, speculative verse, and splendid wordplay, Dead Girl Cameo takes us beyond the headlines, innovating a Black feminist poetic that traverses the richly textured realms of grief, girlhood, love, widowing, femme friendship, and queer fandom.

Details

Publish date August 05, 2025
Publisher Random House Publishing Group
Format Paperback
Pages 144
ISBN 9780593733998
0593733991

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