In this excerpt from his new book, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture, Anaïs Duplan probes the constraints and contradictions of Black masculinity.

Anaïs Duplan
Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. He is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Take This Stallion (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016), and two chapbooks, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus (Monster House Press, 2017) and 9 Poems/The Lovers (Belladonna*, 2018). He is the founding curator for the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color, based in Iowa City. He has worked as an adjunct poetry professor at the University of Iowa, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, and St. Joseph's College. He was a 2017-2019 joint Public Programs Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.