Grubbies

Golden's Works

• A DEAD NAME THAT LEARNED HOW TO LIVE

  An honest lyric, a mighty harpoon straight from the heart, Golden’s debut full-length, A DEAD NAME THAT LEARNED HOW TO LIVE weaves poems, family photographs, & self-portraits to share a journey of survival & living in the American south. Exploring themes of loss & legacy, nation & love language, forgiveness & fortitude, Blackness & being, Golden continually asks–What shifts within & around us when we choose to name ourselves & our kin here–our tragedy & triumphs, our human failures & feelings, our desires to be free? Releasing on their parent’s 30th wedding anniversary (August 29th, 2022) as a dedicated love letter & living archive, this debut is an awe & ode towards southern Virginia & Eastern Shore Maryland, Black family pasts, presents, & futures, to Black queer beginnings & belongings outside and within the family home.

  Type: Book

• Reprise

  A visual & lyrical declaration filled with fever & flight, REPRISE, Golden's second collection of poetry & photography maps a personal search for safety in a U.S. that offers none. Golden’s collection illuminates a path through national uprisings, anti-trans violence, family loss, and a global pandemic. These sonically playful poems and assertive, color-saturated portraits reveal a stark vulnerability that invites readers to look deeply at times of great and, possibly, liberatory uncertainty. At its heart, this collection asks: Where is home? Who is free? What makes a nation? Golden seeks portals towards self-liberation. In their pursuit, we’re invited to witness and learn from their interior revolution, from which they emerge more free to declare themselves in small and large ways: Whether stating I just want to wear my orange dress to the tennis courts & come back home unbothered or I am home in the arms of the armed. Building on their debut collection, A Dead Name That Learned How to Live and their award-winning self-portraiture series, On Learning How to Live, Golden honors the living siege & sorrow, rage & revival, joy & creation of being Black and trans in America.

  Type: Book