Black Queer Hoe

In a debut crackling with energy, honesty, and wit, Kapri moves to reclaim elements of language surrounding women’s sexuality, especially that of black women, that have long been defined by shifting modes of invisibility and hypervisibility. According to misogynistic, patriarchal double standards, she writes, to be a “hoe” is to defy an unattainable vision of womanhood. To open proceedings, Kapri announces that she “ain’t no shrew to be/ tamed, ain’t no horse to be broke, ain’t no Hoe to be/ housewived.” Next, in “reasons imma Hoe,” she exposes the way in which the shaming of a woman’s sexuality starts in adolescence: “a woman in church didn’t like that i walked like a grown woman. i was switching. i grew hips too young... i grew breasts too young. i distracted the boys from their schoolwork by showing my shoulders.” Kapri assails the ways social norms are routinely used to blame girls and women for the moral failures of boys and men. Embracing the intimacy of a confessional and the sting of a viral tweet, Kapri unabashedly celebrates the various facets of her self and refuses to serve as anyone’s martyr: “take it all in./ make me famous./ ain’t no victim here. no shame.” (Sept.)