Aerik Francis is a Queer Black Latinx poet born & based Denver, CO, and is currently the Adams County Poet Laureate. They are the author of poetry chapbooks MISEDUCATION (New Delta Review, 2023) and BODYPOLITIC (Abode Press, 2026). Find more of their work on their website phaentompoet.com or via social media @phaentompoet

BOOK DESCRIPTION: If radical means to the root, radical politics must attend to the body. Written for the vast spectrum of bodies, Aerik Francis’s BODYPOLITIC offers poetry as a catalyst: for movement, for empowerment, and for liberation-minded education rooted in global awareness and local action. This collection of poems questions what it means to live fully inside one’s own body in a society that seeks to regulate, define, or erase bodies. These poems ask readers to reexamine their relationship with their bodies as an act of self-knowledge, resistance, and radical permission to express oneself. Beyond the individual self, BODYPOLITIC also explores how bodies exist within larger bodies of power. Embedded in the history of these political processes are people, Francis’s people, the vast history of peoples fighting against oppressive powers and systems. BODYPOLITIC opens space for a candid conversation with ourselves about what we want, who we are becoming, and who we really want to be.