Color Me White by Kevin Thurston, Illustrations by Mickey Harmon

Color Me White focuses on straight white males, and what is often called toxic masculinity—a topic only aggravated by the current political climate. As Just Buffalo Literary Center Artistic Director Barbara Cole writes in the afterword:

From this first page, the single white male “makes eye contact with you,” the reader. Although, in other instances, this “you” feels like someone else (a former lover perhaps?), much of Color Me White operates by insisting the reader make eye contact with offensive and uncomfortable moments of 21stcentury life. …

In addition to the text itself, Color Me White makes eye contact with the reader through the playful and provocative illustrations of Mickey Harmon. The very first image which accompanies the opening dinner party scene depicts a male figure with his mouth open as if in mid-speech, his eyebrows noticeably crooked as if to suggest that he’s not to be trusted. But the eyebrows are a mere detail. Whose gaze can resist zeroing in on the scruffy haired scrotum and penis standing in for his hand and arm?…

Harmon’s visual pun announces, quite simply, that the single white male is, well, a dick. This is neither a gag nor a punchline but a literal reading. What unfolds over the next 80 pages is a stark critique—playful, yes, but critical at every turn—of the entitlement and privilege which inform white, patriarchal power structures.

Mickey Harmon

From an early age Mickey Harmon has traced and rearranged imagery to drive his quest to visually narrate our world. Mickey has worked with local writers and artists to adapt the history of Buffalo and Western New York to various print and web projects. It wasn't until recently, he opened up my own gallery and retail shop in Buffalo's arts district, Allentown, named the Pine Apple Company. Through collaborating with 5 other artists/owners in the gallery and a population of creatives in the area, projects have ranged in scope and scale. Color Me White is his first project with collaborator Kevin Thurston. This book will be one of his first to leave his realm of historical fiction and enter a nearly 100 page illustrated poetry book from the depths of a writer who has seen his fair share of love, lorn, loss, and horrible things men say.

Mickey lives in Allentown with his husband Robert and their bunny, Fernando.

Kevin Thurston

Kevin Thurston is a writer and performer living in Buffalo, New York. He has a few chapbooks, produced an audio project called KEVIN IS RUNNING LATE BUT WILL BE IN, and has had the pleasure of presenting work throughout the US & Canada. That said, this is his first large scale project in about 10 years. Collaborative by nature, he is thrilled to have worked with Mickey Harmon on this project.

Book Information:

· Paperback: 88 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-304-1