“Jones’ poetry often invokes a sense of intimate nostalgia — a warm thirst for a moment or a place that was, or that could have been. The verses change pace on a dime. They vibrate.” — Jairo Ramos at NPR: Code Switch.
“we tested our faith
in stories of birds
and bees
but
bees lied.” — Kima Jones from “Fresh.”
Who She Is
Kima Jones has received fellowships from PEN Center
I thought I was familiar with every subterranean-race theory; I've even read Jennifer Toth's The Mole People, which is maybe one of the most discredited works of journalism ever published??? (I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND IF YOU EVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, or even just Dark Days, TEXT ME IMMEDIATELY). And yet I was not familiar with the Los Angeles Lizard People, until Christian Brown helpfully caulked that particular gap in…
What I've Learned: The look on a person's face seeing a green-eyed black girl for the first time after speaking to me on the phone can be daunting. A Los Angeles rental story. In 1988, after my dream apartment fell through, I went looking for another. This was before the internet, kids, so I did it old school: scouring the newspapers' want ads, circling in red those that looked interesting or driving around a neighborhood…
