American Sex Tape

“Every now and then, but rarely, a book of poems comes along that is biblical in its authority and iconoclastic in its capacity to rearrange or explode the furniture, the nation, and the self. American Sex Tape™ is one of those.”—Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets“Split between a love of watching and the fear created by it, Jameka Williams demolishes misogynist, racist logic with weaponized line breaks and wrecking-ball wit. And then does something stranger, braver: she looks into the camera. Because this is a book about taking back power, it’s also about the thin line between pleasure and collusion. ‘I love to see it,’ she admits, ‘I love to live inside that camera’s orgasm.’ Complex and messy and necessary in all the ways sex is, American Sex Tape™ is brilliant Black feminist truth.”—Brian Teare “A triumph of a debut. Part cultural criticism, part self-investigation, Williams defies genre convention. Her poems burst onto the page with purpose, veracity, tenacity, and the self-assuredness of a long-established literary dynamo.”—Laura Joyce-Hubbard, TriQuarterly

• American Sex CentoScopophilia“People are dying, Kim”Intelligent WomenBrief Notes on the End of the World, WomenThe All-American Girl“But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men”Plastic White GirlI Intend to OutlastConsider an AnimalIgnition“There’s a lot of baggage that comes with us, but it’s like Louis Vuitton baggage (you alwayswant it)”Black, or Apologies for the Line “Sally Hemings in Leggings”The All-American GirlNew Black VenusMy Sister Says (“Everyone can catch this smoke”)Original SinThe Kardashians for a Better AmericaAmerican Sex TapeBlack, or Even Now I Eat Like a Butcher’s DogBirth of the NationScopophobiaI’m Not the Queen of the SelfieWoman Devours His GazeThis World Is Not GoodBlack, or I Sit on My Front Porch in the Projects, Waiting, on GodErotic Women Do It“Now that I’ve survived, when does living begin?”The Future Is FemaleBlack, or There Is No Nation Both Under God & Above GroundWho Will Save Kim Kardashian?I Intend to OutlastWar & MarriageThe All-American Girl#Free Britney, Brittany, BritnÉe & Brittani, TooBlack, or The Natural World Doesn’t Know MeNothing Is Promised“I can’t dwell?!?”The New MeThe All-American Girl“The new american girl doll is no longer a slave”Since I Laid My Burden DownAcknowledgmentsNotes