Gravity Is Stronger Here is a creative nonfiction photography book made by Phylliss B. Dooney with docu-poems by Jardine Libaire; it’s a book about looking for America in America. In 2011, Dooney visited Greenville, Mississippi, starting a five-year-long documentary project featuring Halea (who is openly gay) and her dynamic Southern American family. The Browns dream out loud while fighting the silent undertow of poverty and recurrent domestic narratives. In the cinematic and ambiguous photographs, and in the poems (constructed from interview transcripts and immersion with the family), the participants are candid about addiction, love, the military, domestic abuse, money, gay life, religion, loyalty, conspiracies, and freedom. Dooney and Libaire also consider the limitations of an ethnographic approach by exploring transparency and collaboration particularly in Dooney’s first-person introduction, Libaire’s poem Outsiders, and in the music videos online (co-conceived with the Browns). The story is extended by its multimedia components which can be found at gravityisstrongerhere.com.

Edited by Alison Morley and Published by Kehrer Verlag.