Photography by Kaye McCoy | Book cover: Art by Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle; Design by Judeth Oden Choi

about be/trouble by bridgette bianca

be/trouble is, in many respects, a love letter to Los Angeles. Even when the city isn’t formally mentioned, it is always in the backdrop, always present, and we are always aware that Los Angeles offers as much danger as it does glamour as much grit as beauty. This is the Los Angeles not shown on television and movies: the everyday minituatea of Black Angeleno life. If you’re lucky enough to be a part of it then you know this heritage was handed from one generation to the next. You know that many reservoirs of that heritage are disappearing with little acknowledgment or news. If you are lucky enough to know then you’ve already had the best catfish, you’ve been to the best card games, you’ve seen the low riders glide up Crenshaw Blvd, you’ve heard the drum circle from Leimert Park. bridgette bianca has written a book that highlights these experiences. The very least we can do is pay attention.

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Don’t forget to request be/trouble at your local indie bookseller and library!"Let bridgette bianca's be/trouble lead you into an unflinching gaze of black lives. This is a symphony of black love. Find your freedom song, your manifesto in these poems." --Imani Tolliver, Runaway: A Memoir in Verse

"bridgette bianca moves beyond witness and holds us accountable in the harsh-tender way we do when we love someone, but love ourselves more. White and institutional nonsense, beware. This collection is essential to understanding what it means to be alive in the United States of America in 2019." --Sara Borjas, Heart Like a Window Mouth Like a Cliff

"bianca's words hurt. Reading be/trouble is self-cutting for those who want to feel. Or don't. bianca is masterful in exposing the tenuousness of life and of survival in a world that commands you to thrive. A world that asks Black women to transform to thrive. To earn it. And refusing to. Her words reflect Blackness and womanhood and with an embrace. be/trouble is essential reading for every waking mind." --Natashia Deón, Grace