"In original kink, Jubi Arriola-Headley speaks with a voice that the old folks back home would say sounds like he has an attitude problem: 'Fix/your face to smile like your teeth/wasn't butter yellow.' These poems strut about and roll their necks. There are boasts and insult. But even when this book is sorrowful, it is proud: 'I still want Daddy/to look at me like he does those dogs. Like I could win.'" - Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Tradition

"This bold debut collection interrogates masculinity, family dynamics and state executions of black bodies with unflinching tenderness and a relentless compulsion to expose tyrannies both self-inflicted and externally imposed. original kink harnesses bruising, vulnerable language with biblical cadence, narrative precision and a musical dexterity to create a poetic of witness, of hymns, striving to demonstrate that 'This is how tyrannies are/ built. Like lullabies.'" - Malika Booker, Cholmondeley Award-winning author of Pepper Seed

"original kink is fixed to trick you with what seems an easy-going syntax. Careful. There's warmth, sure. Love, yes lord. And even joy. But Jubi Arriola-Headley's debut doesn't go easy on religion, desire, power and the intersections where these collide with race, queerness, and gender. Throughout, the poet's kinkiness is a crafty entanglement of hair texture, knots that upset schemes, and sexuality some demand be cut. Careful. Check: 'I'm a freak, America, a peeping/Tyrone...outside looking in.' Then the poem sets its feet to throw hands. Arriola-Headley has been watching, America. He has some words for us. Perhaps we should step outside?" - Douglas Kearney, Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award-winning author of Buck Studies