Special Report

Reporting Black America

A Black artist refuses labels

Cassi Quayson

Cassi Quayson’s Instagram profile reveals astonishingly little about who the writer is. The profile picture is taken from behind her head; viewers need to scroll if they want to see her face. And when they do scroll, attempting to box her in gets even more difficult. Each photo shows the writer in varying states of being; her hairstyles vary, her eyebrows change color, the editing style shifts. Her bio simply states, “Everybody believes me!,” and viewers have no choice but to do just that; Quayson won’t make it easy for just anyone to figure her out. 

“I self-identify as a Black writer. That’s it,” said Quayson, a 20-year-old based in New York City. “I don’t like labels. I like as little labels as possible; that’s something that I’ve realized about myself.”

Laying in bed in her Gramercy Park apartment, Quayson leans into the camera, face almost filling the Zoom square. Behind her, posters are scattered along a white wall. A roommate sits behind her, at a desk not quite out of the frame. She props her laptop on some pillows, once again cropping her companion out.

“I could go back and reinvent myself. Instead of Black artist, I could say that I’m a queer Black artist,” she says. “But what do you wait for to say ‘I came out’ or ‘I identify with this’? Theoretically, you don’t have to wait for anything. That’s how I feel about labeling; it’s a constant waiting to step into the fullness of the word that you prescribe to describe yourself.”

It’s all quite nebulous, to Quayson. 

“Depending on who I’m around, I use different [labels],” she said. “Not because I’m lying or anything like that; it’s just different parts of myself that I feel like are important at different moments. To sum it up into one thing, am I supposed to be, like, multi hyphenate hyphenate hyphenate hyphenate? I don’t need all that, either.”

Quayson’s main areas of work are poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. She is studying “Language and Liberation” at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, a self-created major she describes as “social linguistics, comparative literature, Africana studies and creative writing, all in the goal of being a better writer.” Some major themes in her work are love, Blackness, and the complexity of identity. 

“There’s this huge culture around identity, especially in our generation, and I just feel like it just emphasizes individualism. It’s always, ‘Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?’” she said. “It’s very self absorbed and I’m personally very self absorbed, so getting away from labels is something that helps me with that.”

But Quayson is tired of talking about identity. Moreover, she’s tired of identity only being significant when the artist is a person of color.

“We don’t ask white people: ‘How has being white made this story different?’ Because we don’t see those as productive questions for a writer to answer,” she said, describing the line of questioning as “grating” for her. “You can’t get away from making art within the scope of your identity, whether you label it or not.”

Earlier this year, Quayson released a poetry collection titled Hymn for Mirror Gazing. In one of the collection’s poems, “DRINKING WATER (VERB)”, she writes “IT’S HARD TO BE PROUD OF THE WOMAN I’M BECOMING / WHILE GRIEVING STILL FOR THE GIRL I DID NOT GET TO BE.” The piece concludes, “EVERY SO OFTEN– / I WAKE UP IN MY BODY AND I LIVE IN IT.” 

“The phrase just came to me one day when I was looking in the mirror,” Quayson said of the collection’s title. “Then, a few months later when I was working on the poetry collection, I just found that it fit perfectly; the themes were mirrors, reflections, religion so it just made sense. I also like to think of the poems as ones that can help you face yourself in the mirror in a new way.”

Quayson explained that the theme of reflection is her way of seeking truth, whatever that means in the moment.

“I think that fiction [and poetry are] true in ways that nonfiction can’t be,” she said. “And I don’t like to waste my time trying to get to the fact, as opposed to me exploring something that’s there and knowing that I can’t get to the fact of it.”

 

Author


Other Stories in Special Report: Reporting Black America

Sonic Serenity: A review of the music that carried Black folks through 2021

Vanessa Handy December 16, 2021

Despite uptick in diversity numbers, Black students say inclusive spaces are rare

Sanya Khurana December 16, 2021

African students says mispronouncing their names is a form of racism

Eniola Oshiafi December 16, 2021

Young adult Black immigrants forge new lives and battle racial inequalities

Shawn Kang December 13, 2021

The Chaotic Birth of a Coffee Shop

Austin Barron December 12, 2021

Afrobeat musicians make strides

Kirill Bykanov December 11, 2021

Black photographer’s work reveals the power and beauty of Blackness

Austin Barron November 28, 2021

For young Indo-Caribbean adults, culture is complex and a source of pride

Vanessa Handy November 28, 2021

Challenges persist for Black women who seek degrees in STEM

George Papazov November 27, 2021

Black bookstore owner say last year’s surging sales was part of anti-racism movement

Eniola Oshiafi November 27, 2021

Choosing natural hair for children

Sanya Khurana November 26, 2021

Some Black Parents are Choosing Afrocentric Preschools for their Children

Sanya Khurana November 12, 2021

The quest to diversify NYC’s specialized high schools 

Vanessa Handy November 11, 2021

Healthcare disparities hurts African immigrants

Shawn Kang November 8, 2021

African Women Migrating to Escape Oppression

Eniola Oshiafi November 8, 2021

Black New Yorkers Want Manhattan’s First Black District Attorney To Be ‘Tough’

Austin Barron November 3, 2021

The only woman of color in Nashua’s city council is reelected

Kirill Bykanov November 3, 2021

Black doulas are challenging rampant healthcare disparity

Sughnen Yongo October 26, 2021

Interest in African art is growing

George Papazov October 15, 2021

Black queer community often at odds with police

Monique Ezeh October 14, 2021

Celebrating the Everyday Normalcy in Black Life

Austin Barron October 10, 2021

Liberation through imagination

Vanessa Handy October 10, 2021

Penfield’s Black Supermoms Make Sure School Kids know Black Kids Matter

Sanya Khurana October 8, 2021

Elizabeth Wellington on “Choosing Blackness”

Sughnen Yongo September 20, 2021