Title: Truth and Trope
Year: 2020
Issue: 129
Cover image: Wangechi Mutu, My Strength Lies, 2006, Ink, Acrylic, Photo Collage on Mylar. Diptych. Courtesy of the Artist.
Inspired by the all-female army in Black Panther, T129 explores the Truth and Trope of the strong black woman. Wangechi Mutu’s diptych My Strength Lies graces the front and back cover of the issue; just inside, you’ll find a wide-ranging interview with the artist and an extensive collection of her work. In addition to art by Mutu, Juliana Huxtable, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Zanele Muholi, this special is replete with stunning fiction: don’t miss Sheree Renée Thomas’s wild and otherworldly parable set in a purgatory for young black girls whose lives have been cut short; or Asiya Gaildon’s portrait of a famous, aging Somalian singer struggling to save her guesthouse from enterprising, white do-gooders. Then treat yourself to a selection of poems from Alexis Pauline Gumbs ancestral listening project, in which she mines the wisdom of Sylvia Wynter, or Anaïs Duplan’s experimental meditations on black video art. Special to this issue is a contributor’s note that introduces each piece of imaginative writing—T129 also includes a dossier on Afro Brazil that mourns and celebrates the life of activist Marielle Franco, killed in 2018.