Neyat Yohannes
I'm a writer.
I write personal essays, reviews, news stories, grocery lists missing items that I really needed, subpar raps that I secretly think are at least mediocre, and tardy slips for late students.
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cleojournal.com
Five Reasons to Love Love Jones
While there were several Black indie films floating around prior to Love Jones and a sizable handful to follow it, this was the first to fully consume me as a fledgling film fan and a young Black artist with few role models to show me that a fulfilling creative life was possible.
vagabondcitylit.com
NEYAT YOHANNES on “A HISTORY OF FLAMBOYANCE” by JUSTIN PHILLIP REED – VAGABOND CITY
A History of Flamboyance is the sheer destruction of creation myths in violent shades shades of red. It considers the Church and Greek Mythology, but ultimately uses them as stepping stools to a greater, more honest truth.
chireviewofbooks.com
Rediscovering Kathleen Collins: Radical, Intimate, Radiating #BlackGirlMagic
Whatever Happened To Interracial Love? is teeming with dreamy but ultimately misguided men and the the women who thrive in spite of them.
chireviewofbooks.com
Ari Banias Unlocks the Truth in 'Anybody' – Chicago Review of Books
Sometimes you just have take a mirror to your insides and look into it as you unravel your guts and watch your many selves spill out into the earth in rivulets. In his debut poetry collection, Ari Banias settles into a sweet spot between introspection and examining external ephemera.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on A NT by Elijah Pearson
Nearly anyone who grew up during the aughts has a twitter timeline riddled with lines on perpetual sadness, crippling ennui, and of course, tied for first place are anxiety and depression. For better or worse, we have a penchant for oversharing our current mental state. a nt proves that it’s for the better.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on ” Plastic Pájaros” by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
In Plastic Pájaros, Melissa meditates on the plight of the 20-something, future things, pained communication, life as a first-generation kid, and the strength of the women in her family.
websafe2k16.com
#FFFF99
Web Safe 2k16 is a literary/graphic project exploring our memories of the pre-broadband Internet and related technologies. The project uses Lynda Weinman’s Web Safe color palette as a field of reference constraining a large and heterogeneous archive of personal recollections: 216 authors write 216 words each, inspired by a specific color in the web safe range. Beginning 2/16/16, one piece is published daily.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on Surveys by Natasha Stagg
“One day, I was not famous, the next day, I was almost famous and the temptation to go wide with that and reject my past was too great.” (8) This is the story Natasha Stagg tells in Surveys with astounding exactness and understanding of that esoteric corner of the internet of which we all, at once, show disdain for and vie to be a part of.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on “Even This Page Is White” by Vivek Shraya
Vivek’s most recent effort is her arresting debut poetry collection, even this page is white. It begs a cover-to-cover reading in one revelatory seating. For the brown reader, these poems trigger vigorous nodding and for everyone else, this is a meditation on race and identity that demands accountability.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on “I’m Very Into You” by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark
I’m very into you is, as Matias Viegener puts it in the Introduction, “the surviving correspondence between Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark.” (5) After happening upon each other in Australia while Acker was on a work-related trip, the two shared a tryst that ultimately turned into a frenzied game of email tag lasting a fortnight.
apartmenttherapy.com
Film and TV Characters with Refreshingly Relatable Apartments
Finally, a break from all the apartment envy.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on “Hair,” by Amy Narneeloop
In this chapbook that serves as the index to Narneeloop’s ever-evolving parts, the award-winning, genre-bending writer documents her relationship to her body with matter-of-fact language and special attention to how her gender and racial identity come into play.
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on “(MORE THAN) DUST.” by Jamie Oliveira
Jamie Oliveira is a traveling visual artist and writer. She is also an activist for women’s healing, which is beautifully apparent in her work. Her latest project, (more than) dust. is a powerful photo book that serves as a platform for sufferers of emotional abuse.
thelearnedfangirl.com
The Formidable Young Black Woman TV Character: Whitley Gilbert
Entering from stage left: a svelte, 5’2’’ young woman resplendent with the archetypal accouterments of a Southern Belle: “Denise, welcome back. How was your summer? I just worked my little tail off interning in daddy’s chambers. Have you ever spent a summer in Richmond? You can fry an egg on a Jaguar!”
vagabondcitylit.com
Neyat Yohannes on “Your Sick” by Elizabeth J. Colen, Carol Guess, and Kelly Magee
Despite coming from the imaginative minds of three different writers, the stories in Your Sick coalesce in a way that seems effortless.