Janelle Monáe's 'Dirty Computer' comes alive in a new collection of stories
The artist builds on the Afrofuturistic world from her 2018 album in a new short story collection titled The Memory Librarian. She tells NPR about her nightmare that inspired the project.
Updated April 17, 2022 at 2:10 PM ET
Our memories, our dreams and our emotions — these are the parts of us that exemplify our humanity. But in Janelle Monáe's new collection of short stories, The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer, those are the things that contaminate us — they make us "dirty."
The Afrofuturistic world of first explored in Monáe's Grammy-nominated album from 2018, now fills the pages of a new book. Co-written with authors Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Eve L. Ewing, Yohanca Delgado and Sheree Renee Thomas, the five fictional narratives find Black and queer protagonists grappling with how
