Acknowledgments

It’s all about the love. The book that you are reading began in December 2016 on an early evening walk crossing the Golden Jubilee Bridge, as the golden hour enveloped London in radiant hue. At the time, I was leading an undergraduate study abroad program on race and citizenship in contemporary British literature. “Surely,” I thought, “there must be a book-length study of British Black and Asian poetry.” This glaring absence became an inspiration and a gift. It has been a pleasure to write about a challenging, sophisticated, and beautiful body of poetry that speaks both to the ongoing crises surrounding race and social inequality and to the realities of collectivity and togetherness, in difference and connection.

Along the way, I have accrued innumerable debts of gratitude. This work was made possible thanks to generous funding from the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Dean, the Archie Fund, the Kenyon Family Fund, and the Department of English at my home institution, Wake Forest University, which sponsored my archival research in London in March 2018, May 2022, and May 2025. A massive thanks to the Provost and the Dean’s Office for a Reynolds Leave in 2021–2022 and Teaching Leaves in Fall 2019 and in 2023 for invaluable time to conduct writing and research. Thanks also to Marina Krcmar, both in her role as dean and as a friend, for her generous and kind support of my work. An invaluable debt of gratitude to Kyle Denlinger and the Wake Forest Open Access Publishing Fund, through the joint funding of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, and the Department of English, which has made this a Cambridge Gold Open Access Book. I am grateful for my colleagues in the Department of English and across the university. Big thanks to Reggie Brown, Monique O’Connell, Jessica Richard, Chris Brown, Sarah Hogan, Joanna Ruocco, Eric Wilson, Jennifer Greiman, Sweet Marmite, Barry Trachtenberg, Michaelle Browers, Lucy Alford, Jeff Bills-Solomon, Derek Lee, Kevin MacDonnell, Scott Klein, Meredith Farmer, Wanda Balzano, Jefferson Holdridge, Alex Muller, and Dean Franco: Friendship abides.

I would like to acknowledge permission to reproduce works by a significant group of artists and poets. Sir Frank Bowling, Ashton’s Mix, 2014, © 2025 Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved, DACS Images. Kind permission from Race Today for the reproduction of the magazine cover image and Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poem “Di Great Insohreckshan,” from February/March 1982. Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poems “Yout Scene,” “Yout Rebels,” and “Dread Beat and Blood” © Linton Kwesi Johnson and reproduced by kind permission of LKJ Music Publishers Ltd. Valerie Bloom’s poem “Yuh Hear Bout” © Valerie Bloom 1983 from Touch Mi! Tell Mi! Reprinted by permission of Eddison Pearson Ltd. on behalf of Valerie Bloom. Artist Council Collection, Maud Sulter, Calliope, 1989 © 2025 Estate of Maud Sulter. All rights reserved, DACS Images. Image: © Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for the reproduction of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On), 1840. Kind permission by David Dabydeen, Turner, Peepal Tree Press, 2002. Kind permission by Jason Allen-Paisant, Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet 2023), © Jason Allen-Paisant 2023.

My genuine thanks to Sarah Garrod at the George Padmore Institute, Leila Hassan Howe and the Darcus Howe Legacy Collective, Chloe and Nicola at Chloe’s Espresso Primrose Hill, the welcoming and supportive staff at the Black Cultural Archives, the Stuart Hall Library, the London Metropolitan Archives, and the British Library where so much of this book was written in the rare books reading room and out in the courtyard, in sunshine and in rain.

So many networks, mentors, and friends have supported and inspired my work. Portions of this book were presented at conferences including the American Comparative Literature Association, the Association for the Study of Arts of the Present, and the pivotal conference gathering at Goldsmiths, University of London, “On Whose Terms? Ten Years On (Critical Negotiations on Black British Literature and the Arts).” Sincere thanks to Deirdre Osborne, Birgit Neumann, John McLeod, and Fred D’Aguiar. Big love to Phanuel Antwi, Robert Stilling, Justin Neuman, Walt Hunter, Shirley Wong, Amy Elkins, Bruce Barnhart, Jahan Ramazani, Steph Burt, Sheri Harrison, Andrew Hoberek, and Juliana Spahr. I had wanted to gift this book to the late and beloved Joshua Clover: Your writing and presence have been a model to me to write in my own voice and in my own style, as if we were having a conversation. And beside you, Joshua, Stuart Hall is also here.

At Cambridge University Press, my deep and sincere thanks to Ray Ryan, Peter Boxall, Biju Singh, and the anonymous external readers for their enthusiastic and generous feedback to my writing. Very special thanks to Abby Coykendall for assembling the index.

This book was nourished by the love of family and chosen family: all the love to Jess Doyle, Fern, Juniper, Loki, Beth Bouloukos, Jenny Yusin (moment of gratitude), Liz Mantey, Andy Criss, Chad States, Bacchus, Georgiy Shayanchenko and the Purple Parrot Family, Bennett Orchards, 3BB Café, Megan Culbertson McFalls, Hunter McFalls, Jodi Johnson, Madison Mazon, Sojo and the entire RBP Family for your love in and out of the water, Steph Saxon, Hannah Spangler, DK Crew and Baltimore Chosen Family, Adam Sax, Collin Martin, Eliza Alexander, Becky Pollock, and Darach Ó Séaghdha. Big Love to Joris Voorn, whose sounds have been a daily companion.

The emotional support, encouragement, and love of Gretchen Stevens has been with me every step of the way: I do not have words to express my gratitude to you over the last sixteen years. The companionship of Caala, Jude, and Salome has been truly priceless in the joys and challenges of the day to day. My heartfelt love to the entire Stevens-Soplop crew, especially Kate, Gray, Maggie, Danny, Sano, Joey, Benji, and Zack Stevens. The love of my parents, Abu and Kathy, and my siblings Derek, Zachary, Kara, and Lukey means the world to me and more.

There are two people who have read each and every word of this book. Nathan Suhr-Sytsma, you are my decade-long writing buddy, my dear friend, and without question my purple-hearted, chocolate-loving soul mate. Let’s keep writing and sharing. And Ashley-Frances Mellon, I can barely believe how you have seen this project through every stage of creation and on both sides of the Atlantic, from that walk along the Golden Jubilee Bridge in London, 2016, to Charlottesville, Virginia, 2025.

Here is to the poetry, the music, the art, and the writing that compels us to sit with the hurt of history – and that calls us to fall in love with the world all over again.