Hanif Abdurraqib : A Fortune For Your Disaster

“A Fortune for Your Disaster proves that, if you pay attention, Black people have defined and still define themselves for themselves amid roses and dandelions, cardinals and violets, the blues of music and police uniforms, prayer and swagger. . . . The disaster is not us or ours but what we endure, forced and as a matter of course, whether our presence is acknowledged or not, on our terms or not. As death insists on invading our lives, we keep making more and more beauty in order to survive it. . . . The beauty of our excellence is soundtracked by love and violence. . . . The fortune is us and it is ours. With a music as richly profound as we are, Abdurraqib makes it undeniably so.” —Khadijah Queen