Hoodoo Headrag

Alden Reimonenq's Hoodoo Headrag argues for the spiritual maturation of black gay souls as they move deliberately from coffin-like closets to those without walls or doors. The speakers are closet managers who grapple variously with confinement and freedom, who share a definite ethnic voice -- a black one with strong Créole, Louisiana roots, and who investigate the places where race and sexuality blend rather than separate. In many poems, being black and gay are two strikes that make the third -- ostracism -- far too inevitable. As the speakers find their way through entanglements, they are transformed, in unfettered states, into the exemplary soul-mates of the final, long narrative poem, "A Hoodoo Love." In this poem, two male lovers purge each other of all elements that prevent their natural, spiritual loving. Focusing on the soul's progress, Reimonenq has reshaped the cultural storying of his New Orleans childhood into lyric poetry that sings through picture and sound. Hoodoo Headrag is a wish for peace for black gay men who suffer just for negotiating their love.