DEAD GIRL CAMEO

A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving ripped-from-the-headlines pop culture herstories with the personal narratives of Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and others, to interrogate celebrity, identity, sexuality, industry abuse, death, and the afterlives of stardom.

DEAD GIRL CAMEO, a provocative, dazzling, docu-poetic debut collection from emerging poet m. mick powell that examines ripped-from-the-headlines pop culture herstories with the personal narratives of Whitney Houston, Billie Holiday, Aaliyah, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and others, to interrogate celebrity, identity, sexuality, industry abuse, death, and the afterlives of stardom. m.mick powell shares more on her thoughts and inspiration behind this collection in the attached author questionnaire. In Dead Girl Cameo, m. mick powell closely examines the experiences of Aaliyah Haughton, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Whitney Houston, and other notable superstars who died tragically too soon. How did these starlets challenge conventional representations of Black femininity and friendship, and forever transform the musical landscape? How were the artistries and addictions of these women of color impacted from surviving in the limelight and, often, in the very same industry as their abusers? How did the literal and metaphorical deaths of these Black women superstars establish legacies of Black queer femme existence and afterlife? In stunning imagery and sensual wordplay using ekphrasis, erasure, digital collage, archival research, and speculative nonfiction in verse, Dead Girl Cameo traverses the intimate realms of superstars to reconfigure Black girlhood, survivorhood, femme friendship, and queer fandom.