"Toe the line of danger and dancing": an interview with Jason B. Crawford

We want to celebrate the June 2020 issue’s featured poet, Jason B. Crawford—who happens to have an award-winning debut chapbook, Summertime Fine, coming out in July! Jason recently took the time to talk with us about “Unicorn Kidz Dance under the Moonlight, too,” opening poetry to Black joy, Ann Arbor Pride, fighting for Black Lives—including Trans Black Lives and Queer Black Lives—and stepping up to build a better America.

Thank you for speaking with us, Jason, and congratulations! Your debut collection, Summertime Fine, winner of the 2020 Variant Literature chapbook contest, has been described by Ross White as “refusing elegy but unable to forget the exuberance of summers past, the joy in the alleys of American dread.” What was it like putting the collection together, and how does “Unicorn Kidz Dance under the Moonlight, too” speak to, from, or within the collection?

Jason B. Crawford: Thank you so much, it is greatly appreciated. Both Summertime Fine and the collection that houses “Unicorn Kidz Dance under the Moonlight, too” are inherently speaking on the Black experience as it pertains to myself, a Black, Queer, Nonbinary male. When I started writing Summertime Fine, I wanted you to be able to taste the biscuits and gravy in each page, but also I wanted you to understand why we spend hours cleaning chitlins or pickling pig feet. It’s not just about the recipes, it’s about the traditions that we fall into as a result of the recipes. 

Likewise, “Unicorn Kidz Dance under the Moonlight, too,” speaks to the root of Black toughness as taught from generations of Black trauma. In the Black communities, mother’s fear for their Queer children (both Cis and Trans) not only because of the strength of the bible in the Black community, but also because being soft or Queer can be looked at as a weakness. Another way to justify the disposal of Black bodies in America. Black Trans bodies are murdered at an alarming rate; I wanted to shed light on this epidemic for those who had not been paying attention before. 

There’s so much palpable, rhythmic, and tactile joy and celebration in your poetry—though this kinesthetic and nourishing language exists on the edge of danger and struggle. What is it like to juggle these seemingly opposite forces?

JBC: Throughout my younger writing days, I figured you had to have a lot of pent up sad emotion to make it as a poet. I would actually hold on to sadness as long as I could to write my poems. Most of those poems would make me cry or drink heavily when I would read them back to myself. I didn’t think joy had a place in poetry until 2018 when I listened to an interview Danez Smith had on their book Don’t Call Us Dead. They stated that they wanted to not only focus on the bad things that happen to Black people. Black people experience so much joy that goes unnoticed. I immediately wrote a poem featured in The Amistad called “Ode to the Waves underneath my Wavecap,” which can be found in the Summertime Fine collection. This poem allowed me to focus on Blackness as joy, not struggle. However, we are still poets and our work still heavily revolves around the current events of the world. I want to see where I can toe the line of danger and dancing.

Split Lip is delighted to be able to publish “Uniorn Kidz” during Pride month! How does your experience and performance as host poet of Ann Arbor Pride shape your work on the page (and vice versa)?

JBC: It has been an honor hosting and performing the poetry section for Ann Arbor Pride over the past 6 years. I honestly don’t write my work for the Ann Arbor Pride scene, truthfully I go on too early in the day for me to do most of my poems (due to language) so I get stuck doing some of the same poems over and over but I don’t regret doing it. I perform yearly for them because every year someone walks up to me after and says they needed to hear my words that day. I guess what I am saying is, the show doesn’t shape what I write on the page, it just helps me remember why I am writing it. Someone needs to hear their story or a similar one in a poem, in a book, in a television show, a movie, on an ad. They need to know what they think or feel is valid. I get to stand on a stage and tell them they are important. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Given the social climate in America, what words of advice do you have for other Queer Black writers during this time? Similarly, is there anything you’d like to share with our readers?

JBC: First and foremost, Black Trans Lives Matter, Black Queer Lives Matter, Black Matters no matter the extra identifiers. Now, more than ever, we have to stand and fight for our rights, just as our parents and our grandparents did before us. But at the same time, understand some people will not be fighting for your rights, just theirs. Take care of yourself, drink water, take naps when you need. Take the time to laugh and smile, it might be the only thing that keeps you alive. We (us here in the Black Queer community) need you here and we want you here. We love you.

 For the readers as a whole, again BLACK LIVES MATTER, all Black lives. It is also time for you to step up and do your part. Your part could be donating, marching, retweeting, correcting bigots, being a shelter, giving food. Whatever that part is, do your part to build a better America. America has never been great, just a country watered with blood. It is time for that change, be a part of it.

 Thank you so much for taking the time out to speak with me, I truly appreciate it.

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Jason Crawford (He/They) (@JasonBCrawford) is a black, nonbinary, bi-poly-queer writer born in Washington DC, raised in Lansing, MI. In addition to being published in online literary magazines such as High Shelf Press, Wellington Street Review, Poached Hare, The Amistad, Royal Rose, and Kissing Dynamite, he is the Chief Editor for The Knight’s Library. Crawford has his Bachelors of Science in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University. His debut chapbook collection, Summertime Fine, is due in 2020 through Variant Lit.