Sundress Publications announces the upcoming release of jay délise’s herb of the sun. This poetry collection is a call to action: equal parts call-out of performative activism built on the graves of wasted lives and an exploration of becoming in the shadow of continuous violence, exclusion, and trauma.
Harlem-based Délise confidently leads the reader through moral outrage, despair, exhaustion, resignation, and connection. Whether urging the reader to confront hard truths about politics and performance in our influencer- and virality-inflicted economy, reflect on the everyday headlines we are confronted with, or forcefully recollect what poetry is used for, Délise mirrors these inner and outer worlds beautifully. This powerful collection weaves together love letters to “nappy-haired little Black girls with too much to say” and elegies to art that is “only worthy if it is profitable, profitable if it is topical, and topical if it’s digestible” yet must be made, again and anew, so that we can survive what is happening and what is to come.
Jackie Torres, author of The Reaper: On Refusing to be a Killjoy, writes that “herb of the sun presents every element of jay délise’s writing that makes it untouchable and unmatchable: the exacto-knife precision of naming the problem, the refusal of pretense in discussing it, and the unwillingness to absolve those responsible for the horror…herb of the sun understands and encapsulates the unique grief of knowing that we all should—and can—be better.”
Download your e-copy for free on the Sundress website.
jay délise (they/them) is a writer and performance artist based in Harlem, New York. In 2020, they self-published their poetry collection tenderhead. Their work has appeared in Glass Poetry Press, Huffington Post, Lucky Jefferson, AFROPUNK, Brooklyn Poets, Vagabond City, Triangle House,and elsewhere. Find them at jaydelise.com.
