I Am Still Your Negro

Social Justice Poetry spoken word poet Valerie Mason-John unsettles readers with potent images of ongoing trauma from slavery and colonization.

Her narratives range from the beginnings of the African Diaspora to the story of a stowaway on the Windrush, from racism and sexism in Trump's America to the wide impact of the #MeToo movement. Stories of entrapment, sexual assault, addictive behaviours, and rave culture are told and contrasted to the strengthening and forthright voice of Yaata, Supreme Being.

I Am Still Your Negro is truth that needs to be told, re-told, and remembered. (FromThe University of Alberta Press)

Poet, author, and public speaker Valerie Mason-John (aka"Queenie") highlights issues of the African Diaspora and the Black, female, Queer identity and resists the currently existing overt and covert forms of colonialism through her fierce and brave writing.

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Why Valerie Mason-John wrote I am Still Your Negro

"I can remember when everybody was talking about James Baldwin's documentaryI AmNot Your Negro. I can remember watching it andthinking that things are still happening and that nothing has changed. This documentary and his writings could have been written today.

I can remember when everybody was talking about James Baldwin's documentary I AmNot Your Negro.

"Then I watchedIf Beale Street Could Talk. Again, I thought, 'What's new? What's different?' So it was a response to both of those films."

Read more in her interview with The Next Chapter.

Interviews with Valerie Mason-John

The Next Chapter19:17Valerie Mason-John on I Am Still Your Negro

Valerie Mason-John discusses her stirring and personal poetry collection I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin.