Nonfiction by Gabrielle Civil

February 22, 2022 • 5.5 x 8.25 • 240 pages • 978-1-56689-622-1

Gabrielle Civil mines black dreams and black time to reveal a vibrant archive of black feminist creative expression. 

Emerging from the intersection of pandemic and uprising, the déjà vu activates forms both new and ancestral, drawing movement, speech, and lyric essay into performance memoir. As Civil considers Haitian tourist paintings, dance rituals, race at the movies, black feminist legacies, and more, she reflects on her personal losses and desires, speculates on black time, and dreams into expansive black life. With intimacy, humor, and verve, the déjà vu blurs boundaries between memory, grief, and love; then, now, and the future.

Download the teaching / reading group guide by Lisa Brimmer .

About the Author

Gabrielle Civil is a black feminist performance artist, poet, and writer originally from Detroit. She has premiered fifty performance artworks around the world. Her performance memoirs include Swallow the Fish, Experiments in Joy, ( ghost gestures ) and in and out of place. She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. The aim of her work is to open up space.

Praise for the déjà vu