Originally intended as a performance piece, #flyingwhileback is a heart-wrenching, sometimes whimsical, recalling of the process of boarding an airplane in a Black body. Bordering the genre of speculative fiction, this poem illustrates one of the many ways the Black body is seen as violent and threatening by simply existing. The poem is intended to recount many of my own experiences as well as challenge the authority of the Transportation Security Administration and the ways they engage with Black people.
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2018
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