Everybody with a body, it’s tiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmeeeeeee!!! Neon Moons is officially launching today at Bindery! At Neon Moons, we use speculative storytelling written by Black, Indigenous, and other Authors of Color as the foundation to reimagine new futures for marginalized folx in our reality. We’ll be using multiple mediums of storytelling (novels, comics, novellas, short stories, and the occasional film or documentary) to foster conversations, build community, and make crafts!
Neon Moons has been an idea I’ve had for a while but I couldn’t figure out how to execute it. I’ve been asked for a while to create a monthly book club where we read both comics and books. I’ve also wanted to have a community that does crafts, and talks about whatever we are doing in our lives. I wanted to have a bookclub where we read a book and a graphic novel every month but I was advised against that action (however, I’m still up for it if enough people wish to do it!!)
“Where did you get the name Neon Moons?” That is a great question you just asked. Honestly, they are two words I chose that happen to sound really cool together. Allow me to explain. The first word I had was Moon:
- Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur– I love Lunella Lafayette, aka Moongirl from Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur. As explained in another post, I fell in love with comics as an adult reading Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur in 2015. Lunella is a young Black girl from New York City and is the smartest person in the MCU with a psychic connection to a giant red dinosaur from another dimension. She is me and I am her.
- Moons– space, aliens, magic, not of this earth or its boundaries….immediate connection to science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
- Janelle Monae- They are an ICON. My journey to Afrofuturism happened in multiple mediums, especially with music. My introduction to Monae was the music video for “Many Moons.” If you haven’t listened to Metropolis: The Chase Suite, I’m going to need you to make that a priority because it is phenomenal. I wanted to honor their influence, and Moons was a great way to do that.
- Family– One of my kid’s names means ‘like the moon.” I like putting easter eggs in my projects for my family to find so they know I’m always thinking about them. If the kids are reading this, I love y’all.
Now, allow me to explain Neon:
- Science- Neon is an Element on the periodic table, specifically a noble gas. We’re special as fuck people!!!! And if this is too corny, please exit at your earliest convenience. We will be corny and we will love it, damn it!
- Janelle Monae- same answer just with the interlude “Neon Gumbo” which modifies the melody in Many Moons
- Literature– I love how Neon lights are used in storytelling to signify polarizing beliefs. In some ways, it symbolizes modernity in both technology and society. In others, neon lights symbolize the failures of society. Those colorful bright lights are uncomfortable reminders of society’s failures when it is juxtaposed against a dystopian backdrop. Neon lights operate much in the same way speculative fiction operates when written by marginalized folx. It either has us looking forward, pondering our future, or begs us to see the warning signs of our destruction.
- Neon Colors– I love neon colors, especially on cover art design. Comics or books, it doesn’t matter.
There are multiple ways to support Neon Moons, as seen below. I would love it if there would be financial support through one of the tiers listed below (only if you can!). The five- and twelve-dollar tiers help support me and the content I create and assist Bindery and its efforts to change the publishing industry and create more access to traditional publishing for marginalized voices. A BIG goal I have in the upcoming years is to build our community large enough to eventually publish our own book!!! That would be sooo exciting!!
Our January pick of the month is…. drumroll, please….. Ghost Roast by Shawnee Gibbs, Shawnelle Gibbs, and Emily Cannon!
This year, Chelsea’s all grown up, attending one of the most prestigious high schools in the city, and she’s finally made friends with the popular crowd. Things are looking up—until a night on the town backfires spectacularly, landing her in hot water at home. Her punishment? Working for her dad at Paranormal Removal Services. All. Summer.
Worst of all, her new job reveals an unexpected secret she has to keep: While Dad hunts ghosts with his own DIY tech, Chelsea can actually see them. And when she meets Oliver, a friendly spirit, at the fancy mansion her dad is getting a handsome fee to exorcize, she realizes she has to save his afterlife, even if it risks everything her father’s worked for.
I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor to read, learn, and craft together! I’ve always said I read to understand humanity, so maybe we can all shed our human skin and be aliens yearning for our neon moons…
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