About the Broken Pencil #99 America The Absurd

Modest proposals and Gulliver-sized travels. Swiftian satire leaves large footprints, but there is one American artist ready to fill those shoes. For decades Boots Riley has been telling it as it is. The rapper, poet, producer, activist, Communist and, most recently, director uses his visions to pierce through the heart of American absurdity. His latest work is his tallest order yet.

Sorry to Bother You, Riley's story of a Black telemarketer who climbs the ranks of the tech world after adopting a white speaking voice, turned out to be something of a prophecy. Tech money really doesn't think very highly of its workers, and proposals from the billionaire class for the future have become more outlandish than those in Riley's film. His new project, I'm A Virgo, follows the misadventures of a young Black man in Oakland who happens to be 13-feet-tall and the frenzied exploitation of his unique stature.

In this issue we speak with Boots Riley about the absurd and how it functions as a satirical language that can speak far more eloquently when the world is on fire.