Merging memoir, poetry, and criticism, this radical literary revue traces a first-generation Nigerian Americans search for home and belonging on her own terms.
In The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, Freda Epum explores the opposing forces of her no-place, no-where identity as a Nigerian American daughter, diasporically displaced, who spent years in and out of institutions seeking treatment for life-threatening mental illness. Epum examines her journey through healthcare and housing systems via a pop cultural lensour collective obsession with HGTVs home buying and makeover showsand a patchwork of poetry, art, and autotheory.
With raw honesty and glittering wit, this debut memoir maps the complexity of life under intersecting forms of oppression, revealing what it takes to turn from the brink of despair toward community and self-acceptance, find refuge in love, and reimagine home.
