on god

kwabena foli

“Where you from?

is a question I get often when I’m anywhere else but home while in the middle of an enthralling conversation, and there’s always a look of surprise/intrigue when I tell them...

I’m from Chicago. South Side.

Suddenly, the conversation goes from whatever cool thing we were rapping about to everything Chi-Raq: guns, murder, drill — a stigma that informs the social conversation & policy affecting our lives today. However, the Chicago I know is more than pop culture’s imagination of it.

what some refer to as gangs, i refer to as neighborhoods;
folk i went to school with.
folk i played basketball with.
folk that protected me from bullies.
folk i fell in love with.
folk i still love.
folk that know my mama’s name just like i know their mama’s name. folk that love being a father.
some gone.
some still here.

on god is an auto-ethnographic archive of a nuanced Chicago. the writing here stems from moments / encounters / conversations from my everyday life here, born over a year.

things told.
things heard.
things never forgotten.
on god...”
—Kwabena Foli

on god was published in a handmade edition of 200.

The photograph on the back of the book is by Kwabena Foli in collaboration with Eric Payne.