Minstrel Makeup Sex

"Minstrel Makeup Sex is a brilliant, complex, and wide-ranging social and political project that is brought to life by the sharp eye for both language and image that Langston possesses, the scope of references that populate the work so richly, and the radical lens to tie everything together without sacrificing tone or message." -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America

Collecting 12 years of poems and art, Minstrel Makeup Sex is at once a debut and retrospective for writer, musician, and visual artist Rhys Langston Podell; it is both an artful document in the Black radical tradition and a millennial meditation on the politics of multiracial identity.

It is surrealist sendups of post-DEI American life, and it is acerbic wit that does not miss the forest of fascist power structures for the micro-aggressive trees, comparing music executive Lyor Cohen to Othello's Iago in the same pages that it refracts the animus of Charlottesville rioters and techno-fascist shareholders. But beyond the mere polemic, the work of collected verse juxtaposes the quiet and contemplative to its transparent politics, like in an elegy to Rhys Langston's late cousin, or in an ode to his prized house cat.

Indeed, Minstrel Makeup Sex is where the personal, the historical, the postcolonial, the pop-cultural, and the technological meet in macaronic testimony; it is where sense is made and unmade in playful but dead-serious linguistic mutiny.

"Rhys Langston Podell sophisticates energy like no other mind in this fearless collection of poems. The experience of these lines like a lightening strike that is safe for the body or a gallery of infinite display. In this volley of rhythm and indictment, witness an imagination that no hegemon can contain. Enjoy these poems and don't forget to breathe." -- Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of Blood on the Fog

Rhys Langston Podell is an L.A. born-and-raised musician, writer, visual artist, and educator whose work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, SPIN, AFROPUNK, and more. Using musical projects to transcend genre and cross disciplines, works like Language Arts Unit: A Rap Textbook and Grapefruit Radio Operator's Manual have combined his compositions in sound, word, and art. His most recent album is to live and die in E.U.L.A. (2026). Minstrel Makeup Sex is his debut book of poetry.

• Publisher: Writ Large Press
  
• Publish Date: October 14, 2026
  
• Pages: 116
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Paperback
  
• EAN/UPC: 9798887571812
  
• Dimensions: 8.0 X 5.3 X 0.2 inches | 0.3 pounds
  
• BISAC: Poetry, Arts & Hobbies, American - African American, Subjects & Themes - Political & Protest, American - African American