The book’s five thematically linked stories, each co-written with a different author, all play off Monáe’s 2018 post-cyber-punk album “,” which blended many sounds and styles — rap, pop, funk, R&B, rock and every subgenre imaginable — but felt more directly personal in its celebration of Black women and their sexuality than her earlier, more metaphorical albums.
People in marginalized groups, especially in the LGBTQ community, are in danger of having their memory wiped out with a drug called Nevermind. Anyone who sympathizes with them or rebels against the system is also in danger.The night before Janelle Monáe revealed the first glimpse of the “emotion picture” she had commissioned to accompany her latest album, “Dirty Computer,” was a restless one.
Although she sees the book as a cautionary tale — “if we aren’t careful, we will end up in this world” — anyone who has listened to Monáe’s music or seen her videos knows that caution isn’t her strong suit. Her simple but powerful 2015 protest song “” is as blunt as “Dirty Computer” is elusive, chanting the names of Black people killed by police with the powerfully punctuated refrain, “say his name.
“We wanted that to be clear we were celebrating queerness, celebrating being trans and nonbinary,” says Monáe. “We wanted to make sure we spoke about how beautiful it is to be able to embrace the spectrum of gender. And how beautiful it is for people to stand up for you even if they don’t identify the same way as you. “A guide to the literary geography of Los Angeles: A comprehensive bookstore map, writers’ meetups, place histories, an author survey, essays and more.