I am now going to spend all important cultural moments wondering how Hanif will frame them in a forthcoming essay. There are few writers that I experience addressing the topical variety that this collection spans, and never have I felt more emotionally connected to things I had never thought about before (i.e. whether or not I want to be friends with Carly Rae Jepsen) or not thought about in ages (i.e. the shiny suits in the Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems video) or never thought about in the way Hanif invited me to (i.e. grief).

There’s a piece in here about white responses to black deaths, and I’m going to sit with it for a while. And another where Hanif turns the phrase “archiving life as political action” that is contributing to how I frame my reading as witness.

This collection is heartwarming and heart-wrenching and hopeful and horrified and mostly at the same time. Thank you, Hanif, for this gift.