On ‘Dirty Computer’ Janelle Monáe Breaks Out of Her Android Persona

Nearly a century ago, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote one of his most abiding works, “We Wear the Mask.” Much of the poem’s heat springs from its opening stanza, which plays like a confession eager to break free. Of the disguise so many black Americans choose to wear, he writes: “It hides our cheeks …

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