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Transtraterrestrial Dark Matter and Black Divinities by Sage Ni'Ja Whitson A two-part book reimagining dark matter and the dark Publication date: November 4, 2025 128 pages, 8.5 x 10”, 21 color pictures $35 Paperback, 978-0-8195-0199-8 $27.99 Ebook, 978-0-8195-0200-1 Contact: Rebecca Maher (860) 685-7725 or rmaher@wesleyan.edu Wesleyan University Press 215 Long Lane, Middletown, CT 06459 Weslpress.org Author is available for events and interviews.

Transtraterrestrial is an experimental book that documents Sage Ni'Ja Whitson's groundbreaking performance pieces, blending African Diasporic prac ces with innova ve methodologies to explore themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit. Using a têtebêche binding, the book is divided into The Unarrival Experiments and Counterproposals. Both sec ons delve into the mysteries of dark ma er, dark energy, and Blackness through a Black, Queer, and Transembodied lens.

In the performances of The Unarrival Experiments, the audience is led on a cosmic journey guided by the space conductor, Trans Trappist the Extraterrestrial. This sec on of the book traverses the dark as both an ancestor and embodied transgender technology, asking profound ques ons: How do you perceive what cannot be seen? What if Blackness refuses to arrive, exis ng in the realm of the unarrival? Counterproposals delves into Yorùbá Cosmology, astrophysics, and the concept of the "blackest black," to explore a Black Futurity where queerness and transness are celebrated and centered. The book includes a fusion of le ers, poems, photographs, and specula ve wri ngs. Color images throughout the book invite readers

into the immersive worlds of performance and installa on, o ering a rich, layered experience of Whitson's unique ar s c vision.

Endorsements "Part poetry, part performance, part pedagogy, part programma c i nerary and protocol for living, Transtraterrestrial is a medita on about blackness, about created things, about the rela on between the living and the departed. Unse ling form, playing with modes of address, experimen ng with genres of wri ng and visuality, Ni'Ja Whitson asks readers to journey with them through ques ons of iden ty, gender and breath." —Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia "By asking readers to examine the text in varied ways—the two parts are read back to back, with covers for each on both sides of the book and mee ng in the center—Whitson challenges tradi onal approaches to narra ve and scholarly work… Whitson’s book is a tac le experience. It is a volume to be held and carried around, with wri ng that calls for physical movement by its audience." —Library Journal

Author Bio

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson is a Queer & Transgender ar st who works across media. Whitson’s an -disciplinary constella on of art has received interna onal awards and recogni on, including a DAAD Ar st-in-Berlin Visual Arts Award, Crea ve Capital Award, two “Bessie” Awards, Dance USA Fellowship Award, and a United States Ar st Fellowship Award. Via The Unarrival Experiments, Whitson’s mul -form epic on dark ma er and dark energy, they exemplify a cri cal intersec on of the sacred and conceptual in science, technology, art, and text. Whitson’s wri ng has been supported by the Camargo Founda on, Bogliasco Study Center, and Hedgebrook, and has been featured in their award-winning performances (such as Oba Qween Baba King Baba) and fes val commissions (BAM Next Wave Art, Tanzkongress). They are currently a professor of Black Study at the University of California, Riverside, recently serving as the department’s inaugural chair (2023-2025). Whitson is the great-grandchild of a root worker and a proud legacy bearer, ritual leader, and prac oner of familial and ancestral Spiritual tradi ons.