A poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art."She is a writer for the future, in that she defies genre."--Hilton Als"Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva charts the 'grieving patterns' informing a life with unflinching honesty and clarity. This notable achievement, traveling from youth to adulthood, is a harrowing account of how Sneed transforms violence and pain into an artist's life."--Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American LyricIn this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on Black Queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead. Sneed's poems not only converse with lovers past and present, but also with her literary forebears--like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde--whose aesthetic and thematic investments she renews for a contemporary American landscape.Offering critical focus on matters from police brutality to LGBTQ+ rights, Funeral Diva confronts today's most pressing issues with acerbic wit and audacity. The collection closes with Sneed's reflections on the two pandemics of her time, AIDS and COVID-19, and the disproportionate impact of each on African American communities."Riveting, personal, open-hearted, risky and wise. This is Pamela Sneed at the top of her gifts, firmly grounding her history into our history, enriching both, acknowledging all the legacies and losses, influences gold and ash."--Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse" . . . a tour de force about the collision between a coalescing 1980s 'Black lesbian and gay literary and poetic movement' in New York and the onslaught of AIDS."--Donna Seaman, Booklist"Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva is deft, defiant, and devastating. Nothing exists in her work without history, without teaching me, as she writes, 'the power of what words can do.' Through her brilliant mind it's evident that everything is truly connected. You just have to find the string."--Tommy Pico, author of Feed"Funeral Diva is urgent and necessary