Testimonio poetics begins by a perilous embrace of societal inaudibility and works its way towards a death-defying rhythm of responsory. It is a simultaneous summoning of Self and Other with the aim of carving out new civic spaces. The journey requires a guide. Kelsey Smoot's we was bois together is the hardiest of guides. These poems withstand rockslides, floods, and outright attacks by hostiles. But the poems get us there, to a deepened, broader understanding of gender in our time. This collection is a master showcase of hard-won realities-through style, the high style of Kelsey Smoot.

-Rodrigo Toscano, author of The Charm & The Dread

This collection is a fierce declaration of self; it is a choice toward softness. In we was bois together, Kelsey Smoot fights to be a "better, brighter reflection" while facing the land mines often embedded in one's attempt to reclaim an imperfect masculinity. In struggle with the sometimes isolating nature of gender non-normativity, he affirms himself in boihood, an experience that, as Kelsey describes it, leaves room for the grace that the world often restricts from us. It leaves room for a human to exist before Black, before boi.

- Nhataniel Placide, host of THE SPACE {space_openmic}