Love is the Antidote to Extinction is a limited-edition literary art house book of essays and photography about love as a practice and state of being across all cultures.
It began as my master's thesis at Harvard Divinity School, a graduate program that has hosted artists like myself. I spent a year studying the works of Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice MacLachan, Judith Butler, Bishop Butler, bell books, Vladimir Jankélévitch, and more. I started my degree with one question: if human beings are so destructive, then how have we—as a species—survived war, famine, genocide, and more? Against all reason, what is it about our innate nature that has keep us from extinction?
I theorized: love. Not the commercial, superficial sense of love. The radical love that is profound and innate, the love that is able to withstand the horrors time and time again. It is not just, as James Baldwin wrote, "[an] infantile sense of being made happy."
In this collection of lyrical prose by me, I broke down this concept into 4 sections that I believe define what love is: translation, ritual, invention, and sanctuary. It is part memoir, part theology, and part argument. I am stylizing it as a literary art book (see: Library Science, issue 01) versus a traditional essay collection because I believe design and imagery can also speak to my work.
This is not intended commercial release. I've spent the last 3+ years working on this collection and hope it finds itself in the homes of anyone who has ever questioned, found, mourned, and been resurrected by love. I am in the second stage of development and seeking funding for editing, design, permissions, and printed sample spreads. The book will be 144 pages, 8.5 × 10 inches, hardcover with original photography, in a first edition of 400. The goal is publication by June 2027.