Haters will call it confusing. Famously figurative, poetry remains the most discouragingly mystifying format in the literary sphere. But would those metaphors and similes be more digestible if they were presented in a picture?
KB Brookins investigates via “Freedom House: An Exhibition,” a visual rendering of their 2023 poetry collection of the same name, opening April 13 at Prizer Arts and Letters. Based on their experience as a queer, Black, trans Texan, Brookins first conceptualized the book by reflecting on the ways in which art contributes to liberation. Speaking to the Chronicle, they recall pondering: “If freedom was a house, how can we make sure that art is one of the tools that builds the house?”
At Prizer, Brookins assembles said home by placing digital collages, inspired by specific Freedom House poems, in different “rooms,” signified by corresponding furniture. Artworks range in topic from the surveillance of Black Americans to East Austin gentrification. Most moving is “Black Hair,” which pairs a portrait of the artist with a poem about growing a beard for the first time.
“I saw myself over time – and I’ve talked to other trans men and transmasculine people about this – you can see the way that people treat you differently over time,” Brookins says. “[There’s a] bashfulness with growing any kind of hair that is not on your head when you’re seen as a girl. I just had a whole new experience of hair.”
Brookins will read select poems and take questions at the April 13 opening reception, which runs from 6 to 9pm. While no stranger to the publishing world – their debut memoir Pretty arrives May 28 – “Freedom House” marks their first visual art exhibit.
Ahead of their debut, Brookins quips, “[I’m] feeling ready for these things not to be something that just exists in a Google folder.”
This article appears in April 5 • 2024.
