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432 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2024
1. All of this reminds me of when Ms. Pauline would catch the Holy Ghost in the middle of church, and her whole body would fall on the ground, shaking. Her wig would fall off, making all of us almost piss on ourselves, laughing.
2. On my right, a couple of baddies strut by, looking me up and down, smiling. I nod a wadup, trying hard not to look at them jeans, hugging them in all the right places. They giggle and press on.
3. A few giggling girls pass us with glazing adoration in their eyes. They all say in unison like they're in an episode of The Parkers. "Heyyyy, Professor Kumale." [...] They giggle and bobble their heads even more and bound outside the door.
4. One girl catches my attention. She blows on her pencil all seductively, and I swear to God, it writes the words without her even holding it.
5. Alexis comes out looking like a whoooollle brown-skinned Cinderella with her yellow see-through bikini dress that hugs every curve. Lawd ham mercy. When her full lips curl into that beautiful smile, it's making me clutch onto the art of being a gentleman for, like, five seconds. "Daaaayyyum...," I whisper, noticing her thigh slipping out. [...] It takes everything in me not to be a creep, because I just stare at her.
6. A group of scantily clad hotties flutter around the dance floor like moths under a streetlamp. They twerk them goodies while the music pulsates. Dipping through the room is a dude [...] chasing after a baddie, serenading her with drunken compliments.
7. [...] everybody in the house goes ham, throwing that ass with supernatural speed on the down beat. A couple of dudes straggle behind, being blessed by this one girl while she speed-twerks on them.
8. Even some girl comes up to me and starts twerking on me. Her booty going berserk, causing my world to go upside down. Even my teammates hold me back while homegirl go ham on me.
"It may not bring her back, but with our magic, we can prevent another Black woman or man from being murdered." [Alexis] clocks me shaking my head. "I knew you wouldn't understand. The only person who understands me is Donja..."
"Wow. So, you and the n–– definitely fucking."
She shakes her head. "You're doing the most right now."
"I'm doing the most right now? Really? Well, ain't that the pot calling the kettle black. You know what, how you gon' take up for him, knowing what he did? I'm your friend way before you known that n––. What, y'all smashing or something?"
I immediately soften. "You sure nothing is going on with you two?"
"This is my last time even giving attention to this, okay? So, here it goes. No, we are not. [...]"
It takes everything in me to put the green-eyed monster away.
Enroll in this fresh fantasy debut with the emotional power of Legendborn and the redefined ancestral magic of Lovecraft Country .
Hailing from the small town of Helena, Alabama, LaDarrion Williams is a self-taught playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh, and fantastical way. As a playwright, his first play Katrina won first place at the Alabama State Thespian Conference. Black Creek Risin’ was a part of the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. His play, Coco Queens, was invited to participate in the 2019 Sundance Institute’s Playwriting Intensive and will be receiving its World Premiere at Playhouse on the Square in July 2024. His plays also received semi-finalist recognition from the Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. He is a 2x finalist for the National Black Theatre I AM SOUL Playwriting Fellowship, David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artist Theatre Grant, and the American Blues 2023 Blue Ink Award. He is also an alum of the Echo Theatre Playwrights Lab and the Boise Contemporary Theater BIPOC Playwrights Festival. His Jeff Award nominated play Boulevard of Bold Dreams (a story about Hattie McDaniel’s historic Oscar win) was a part of the New Works Festival at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica, California. It received a world premiere production at the TimeLine Theatre Company in Chicago and an East Coast Premiere at Greater Boston Stage Company in March 2023. It was a part of the Orlando Shakes Theater Signature Series in Fall 2023 and will be produced at subsequent theaters nationwide in 2024-2025. In his filmmaking bag, LaDarrion has curated three short films on YouTube. And as a debut author, his Young Adult Blood at the Root was acquired in a competitive auction from Labyrinth Road, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and will debut in Summer of 2024.