I spent a lot of time trying to layer upon layer upon layer as I wrote. I think that's often the fear of a writer, that little nuances won't get picked up.

I think that fear came from, "Okay, I'm going to have Beyoncé in the title, and people are just going to think, it's Beyoncé poems. It's light and fun." I was kind of super-conscious of that. It's kind of like this weird trick I'm playing, where you're like, "What an interesting, fun cover, and then the name Beyoncé." Then you open it, and it's just about my depression. All of it belongs together.

In my experience when I do try to avoid something, it makes its way into the work anyway. To be in front of it and just make friends with it is easier for me.

It's hard for black women to ask for help. We think we don't need it. We're used to being in pain and living with it.

I really hope that people feel permission to talk about their own troubles, but also to celebrate themselves.

I also think that [political turmoil] gives artists something, a way of kind of processing.

We kind of have to rewrite our own stories and our own ways of being free.