Roadmap

by Monica Prince

In this radical twenty-first century choreopoem, Dorian, a young American Black man, is tasked by an ancestral spirit to thwart his inevitable murder. He traces his family tree, from his grandmother to his offspring, uncovering secrets of sex work, self-harm, and assault alongside snapshots of #BlackBoyJoy. Guided by The Novelist, an omniscient muse, and her troupe of dancers, Dorian must interrogate his legacy, forgive his past, and reckon with being Black in modern America. He tries on different selves and possible futures in his increasing desperation to experience the luxury of growing old and finding solace despite institutional racism declaring him a threat. Through the poetry, dance, and song of Roadmap, will Dorian overcome the odds or become another hashtag?

Paperback | 102 pages | Santa Fe Writer’s Project | 2023

Monica Prince started writing choreopoems in college after reading Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf. That choreopoem transported Prince to a world of poetry, dance, song, and healing. Prince wanted to write like that. Prince wanted to perform like that.

Now, that’s all Monica Prince does. Write poems, dance, sing, and try to heal. Prince teaches at Susquehanna University where students heal from a destructive world. Teaching gives them a platform to elevate young writers and space to draw inspiration from them. When Prince is not in the classroom, she’s on a stage directing or performing.