Naked Appearances

Naked Appearances is a collection of essays, poems, short stories, and summary writings I call "hard thoughts" addressing the relationship between art and identity. It is my analysis of African American culture, particularly in New Orleans, from the purview of my life experiences. It addresses the processes of artistic manifestations and the existence of those creations for utilitarian, social, and spiritual purposes from perspectives within their local and national social-political environments, Caribbean analogies and parallels, and in acknowledgment of their Africanity. 

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The book questions the unconscious processes of the rationales used to justify our artistic practices stemming from accepting a historical past dictated to us and today's philosophical or fundamental nature of racism still deeply embedded in our society. These reasonings, logical and illogical, reflect the historical impact of internalized racism and resistance to racism. It is the identification of those artistic practices that reclaimed a self-defined African-centered identity amid what was then considered radical social-political acts that asserted cultural and historical narratives that are at the forefront of the work.