Black Venus Fly Trap

A shocking debut poetry collection that invites readers to grapple with the origins of a world that both hates and needs Black women. A disruptive hagiography of the Black Venus & Sapphire, mammy bulldaggers, and welfare queens, Rich's collection splendidly desecrates poetic elitism. Black Venus Fly Trap is an eldritch account of Black femininity simultaneously born from the chorus of refusal and unlike anything written before. 

"That frisson of realness, the unsayable that can be lost when we ask language to convey the infinite interiority of the black woman-Black Venus Fly Trap rescues it." - Doreen St. Felix

"Jeanetta Rich's writing doesn't sit on the page, it oozes over your psyche. Fearless and complex, defiant and radiant! I love it." - Kim Gordon

"Jeanetta's writing is exquisite and it stings - which is how you know it's working." - Elaine Kahn