Keenan Teddy Smith

Keenan Teddy Smith (CC'18) is a student and writer from Flint, Michigan. His writing has appeared in PAPER Magazine, The Advocate, American Chordata, and The Shade Journal, among others. He was recently named an "Emerging Poet" by The Shade Journal for his poem, "The Unsung." Keenan writes as a practice of expanding the literary aesthetics possible for black queer and trans folks, with a particular focus on how sound, song, sex, and community are formed and undone through words. This poem was recently featured in the New York Times T Magazine.

Cover of solange's 2019 LP "When I Get Home"

Worldbuilding and Meditative Speculation through Solange and Civilization

By Keenan Teddy Smith

There’s a world for me to build. I have a chance to do something, even ever so slightly, different from that which is considered known. The outpost, the biological structure, the act of construction and capacity to destruct— worldbuilding, the invocation of something just to the left of the form, becomes an illusory practice.”