First, I would like to say thank you to those who have purchased my book, as I hope you will take from its contents what you need. Writing Reimagining Black Art and Criminology has been a troubling, evocative, and humbling experience in equal measure. However, at a time when increased right-wing populism continues to undermine progressive ideas about racial parity, I was constantly reminded that the struggle is far from over and must continue. Undeterred by this state of affairs, my new book seeks to bring urgent attention to a provocative criminological perspective viewed through the lens of ‘black art’. To the cynics, critics, and race deniers, I say “welcome”. Exploring the arts and creativity in relation to crime and its formations is not a new phenomenon. O’Brien (2008) connects Victorian poetry to developments in the Victorian discourse on crime. Jacobsen (2014) provides a context to reconsider and reimagine how criminological knowledge may be creatively, poetically constructed, obtained, corroborated, and applied. Saleh-Hanna (2010), similarly, sees black resistance through the use of music. Zoboi and Salaam (2020) have also written a novel in verse about a black boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. In essence, what I am putting forward here is not new, but instead is part of a continuum of art-infused criminological thinking and expression. The need for revision of our current thinking using creative means is upon us. Hartney and Vuong (2009) see non-white peoples across the world as being alarmingly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. While Lammy (2017) asserts that if the agencies of the criminal justice system cannot provide evidence-based understandings of racial disparities, then reforms should be introduced to address this differential racialization of crime and its formations. Ferell (2014) argues that criminology remains largely a self-perpetuating practice that lacks the ability to look outside itself. Ferell further points out that: ‘Criminology today is crippled by its own methodology, its potential for analysis, critique and appreciation lost within a welter of survey forms, governmental data sets and statistical manipulations’ (2014: 285). Travis et al (2005) see the unprecedented levels of incarceration and re-entry for black offenders as having widespread and poorly understood consequences for their families and the communities they come from.