JANELLE MONAE – The Memory Librarian And Other Stories Of Dirty Computer

Following up the science fiction universe in their studio album, actress and singer Monae explores the Afrofuturistic world of queerness, transness, blackness, technology, and the power of memories.

Consisting of five novelettes with interconnected characters, Monae builds a totalitarian universe in which the inhabitants’ memories are constantly controlled, filtered and erased to suppress potential rebellion. The New Dawn, as the universe is called, has a place for everyone as long as they remain in place. This hypervigilant and authoritarian state’s ethos is “Order, Standards And Merit Above All”.

The story begins with Seshet, the Director Of Memory Librarian who, after an encounter with a black trans woman, Alethia, begins to question her past and submission to the regime. With the growing romance between the two, Seshet starts to sense that their tryst has been plotted by an unknown force, leading to surreptitious attempts to uncover who Alethia is. Seshet and Alethia’s accounts set the stage for the following stories by describing the history of New Dawn and its established memory surveillance regime.

The second story brings readers to the Pynk Hotel, a space of freedom from the binary order. Everyone is here to experiment with arts and queer communitarian values. With threats from New Dawn increasing, Jane and friends plan a rebellion, no matter how much it will cost them.

Full of black, queer and trans characters, Monae has a dream-like storytelling style, because “dreams are memories’ voices” and “you’ve got to let them sing”. – Hendri