bull-jean & dem/dey back

"Open bull-jean gate
and conjure rises from the unbroken page into the soul—
which is surely deeper than it was before."

—Eisa Davis

"Sharon is solar. She has a powerful central gravity; she gives off light and gives life a faithful reference—she writes from cause and her writing causes writing. Sharon’s fierce honesty liberates delight and calls up compassion’s responsibility. Noun by noun, diphthong and elision and swoop and nuance and sublimity at a time, she launches language that shares itself into an ambience of enlightenment. She reads us, and reading her we are brought up to our best selves. Her writing is material and complex enough to take on true love." —Erik Ehn

"Sharon Bridgforth’s work is like breathing. It is both necessary and life-giving. I inhale the warmth and cool of her soulful southern lyricism and am able to exhale into bull-jean herself. Black/queer/masculine/butch/big-hearted/bull-dagger bull-jean. How wonderful to have this boldly crafted character guide us through the complicated terrain of love-making, love-conjuring, love’s breaking, and love’s lasting. And to witness her power become fully manifest in her relentless search for that romantic love. And how wonderful to have bull-jean back again, in her old age, to help guide us into healing, remembrance, and transition. Sharon Bridgforth’s language channels in this new story as a gift from the ancestors: Dance, music, and rituals long forgotten. Love, a measure of what we leave behind. In the end, Bridgforth challenges us to consider if we’ve loved radically enough to become those loving ancestors we seek." —Donnetta Lavinia Grays