The rapper and poet Noname first rose to prominence in 2016 with her breakout album “Telefone,” which seemed to be bumping on every speaker that year. Her most recent album, “Sundial” (2023), further solidified her as one of the best rappers around. Part of what makes her music exemplary is its love for literature and activism, using literary devices to speak in solidarity with protest movements, like her song “hold me down,” which opens with an allusion to “Stop Cop City’’ in Atlanta.
“Rap is poetry that’s put to music,” Noname tells me. “I do see poetry and rap as one and the same.” For Noname, one of the early entry points to creative writing and rap was the YOUmedia project at the Chicago Public Library, where she took a poetry workshop as a teen and started an open-mic series called “Lyricists Loft.
” Other Chicago-based musicians, such as Jamila Woods and Chance the Rapper, benefited from similar youth literary programs like Young Chicago Authors (YCA) during this era. To this day, Noname remains an advocate for public libraries and the dissemination of revolutionary literature. She has spoken about the high cost of books and has advocated for book donations, leaking PDFs and other forms of making literature accessible.
In this ethos of supporting access to literature, especially for Black leftists, Noname began a book club in 2019. The Noname Book Club has since opened 14 chapters across the United States, as well as launching affiliated .