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19.04 / 18:51
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Read an excerpt from Janelle Monáe’s new Dirty Computer book, The Memory Librarian
Sprawling, ambitious science fiction stories have been part of Janelle Monáe’s music since the beginning of her career. Her debut EP, Metropolis, and her first two albums, The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady, are all segments in a long Afrofuturist arc about a far-future android alter-ego character, Cindi Mayweather, who falls in love with a human, becomes an outlaw, and rises to messianic status. Her Grammy-nominated 2018 album Dirty Computer launches a new story, about a dystopic future where marginalized citizens — especially Black, female, and queer people — are likely to be identified as “dirty computers” and taken away to be reprogrammed by an oppressive regime.