Sean Avery Medlin Knihy

"September's Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature" --Lambda Literary "Most-Anticipated New LGBTQIA+ Books of 2021" --Paperback Paris "An elegant mash of memoir, poetry, tales of appropriation, thoughts on Black masculinity, Hulk, Kanye." --Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune 808s & Otherworlds announces a bold and incendiary new voice in Sean Avery Medlin. Against the backdrop of the Phoenix suburbs where they were raised, Medlin interrogates the effects of media misrepresentation on the performance of Black masculinity. Through storytelling rhymes and vulnerable narratives in conversation with both contemporary Hip-Hop culture and systemic anti-Blackness, 808s & Otherworlds pieces together a speculative reality where Blackfolk are simultaneously superhuman and dehumanized. From the gut-wrenchingly real stories of young lovers unmythed by segregation or former classmates appropriating Black culture, to the fantastic settings of Hip-Hop songs and comic characters, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds and otherworlds while composing a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat.

808s & Otherworlds announces a bold and incendiary new voice in Sean Avery Medlin. Against the backdrop of the Phoenix suburbs where they were raised, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds -- as gut-wrenchingly real as young, star-crossed lovers unmythed by segregation, and imaginative as the story of Mer-Africans who "live deeper than Atlantis or military submarines, deeper than any human, mutant, or cosmic deity can descend," as narrated by Storm.808s & Otherworlds interrogates the effects of media misrepresentation on the performance of Black masculinity. Through storytelling rhymes and vulnerable narratives in conversation with both contemporary Hip-Hop culture -- superhuman mutants, video games -- and systemic anti-blackness -- the death of Darrien Hunt, murdered by police while cosplaying -- 808s & Otherworlds pieces together a speculative reality where Blackfolk are simultaneously superhuman and dehumanized. It's a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat.