Interdisciplinary poet Julianknxx wants to write what he calls a “history from below”, making work that dismantles elitist historical, political and sociological narratives through a movement towards a “new moral imagination”. Bringing together poetry, music and film, he aims to look past the obvious to engage with his subjects through close observation. “My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them”, he explains, “to discover beauty through the lens of a black light.” In Praise Of Still Boys is a reexamination of the artist’s childhood growing up in Sierra Leone through the lives and experiences of young boys living and growing next to the blue waters of the Atlantic ocean. The piece draws inspiration both from Barry Jenkins’ 2016 adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue and this 1982 quote from Richard Pryor regarding a visit to Kenya: “So I went to the motherland; it was so beautiful. Just seeing black people in charge of everything. I’m talking about from the wino to the President. It was black. Blue-black. Original black. The kind of black where you go, “Black!”.