Imani Mason Jordan, PIVOT

PIVOT is an experimental, book-length poem exploring the profound act of turning, with the Haitian Revolution as its cornerstone. It moves beyond historical narrative, scrutinising this epochal event through its critical junctures of rupture and radical reorientation. Using minimalist abstractions of language, Mason Jordan delves into the visceral and conceptual mechanics of turning: a turning away from colonial subjugation, and a turning towards new vocabularies of freedom. PIVOT examines international revolt, revolutionary fervour, and relation in the aftermath of transatlantic enslavement and European colonialism.

Imani Mason Jordan is an interdisciplinary writer, editor, artist and curator interested in performance and poetics. A PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, they research racial capitalism and carceral logics through the work of Stuart Hall. Their experimental performance practice uses improvisation, minimalist technique and black study to choreograph language, foregrounding the speaking/reading voice as a musical instrument.

Mason Jordan is also Director of PAPERFLESH PUBLISHING, a small press and editorial studio for experimental literature by black writers. In 2019 their pamphlet OBJECTS WHO TESTIFY was published by Taylor Le Melle at PSS. Between 2019 and 2024, they were one half of Languid Hands, who curated exhibitions and public programmes with black artists across the UK and internationally. In 2026 Mason Jordan will curate the group exhibition NOMENCLATURE FOR THE TIME BEING at Raven Row, London, with assistance from Nikita Quarshie Sena.