Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Major/Program

Creative Writing

First Advisor's Name

Julie Marie Wade

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Richard Blanco

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Shawn Christian

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

poetry

Date of Defense

3-21-2023

Abstract

POSSUM PARADE is a poetry collection that considers what it is like to live as a queer mentally ill African American male in contemporary American society. The collection contains a wide variety of lineated forms, both traditional and experimental, as well as a series of prose poems. This collection employs traditional forms such as ghazals and aubades in subversive ways to comment upon a variety of topics such as 21st century hookup culture, the speaker’s grappling with religion, their Southern Baptist upbringing, and the ever-present death of African Americans. This collection explores the intersection of queerness and race, the sensual and death, as well as utilizing pop culture figures as myths and legends in regard to the speaker’s own struggle with mental illness and their own mortality.

Identifier

FIDC011075

Included in

Poetry Commons

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