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Testament V: Black Light Fandango
Black Light Fandango finds Rashid Darden writing with increasing confidence and freedom. Set against a backdrop of city life, friendship, attraction, and unexpected moments of recognition, these poems explore the ways identity is revealed and sometimes transformed through encounters with other people.
Included as the fifth volume of The Testaments 1995–2025, this collection marks a period of creative expansion. The poems move easily between the intimate and the public, reflecting a writer whose voice continues to grow in range and ambition.
One life. Eight books. Thirty years of poetry.
Included as the fifth volume of The Testaments 1995–2025, this collection marks a period of creative expansion. The poems move easily between the intimate and the public, reflecting a writer whose voice continues to grow in range and ambition.
One life. Eight books. Thirty years of poetry.
53 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 20, 2026
About the author
Rashid Darden
23 books98 followersRashid Darden is an award-winning novelist of the urban LGBT experience, a seasoned leader of black fraternal movements, and a professional educator in alternative schools. He is local to the District of Columbia and Conway, North Carolina.
His books include the Potomac University Series: Lazarus, Covenant, and Epiphany; Yours in the Bond (Men of Beta, Volume I); the Dark Nation Series: Birth of a Dark Nation and Children of Fury; the anthology Time; and The Life and Death of Savion Cortez, a volume of poetry. His short story “Smith & Jones: Young Americans” was first published in 47 – 16 : Short Fiction and Poetry Inspired by David Bowie (Volume I). In 2017, Rashid’s play “Message from ‘The Legba’” was selected as a winner of the OutWrite DC and Theatre Prometheus One Page Play Competition. It was staged in 2018. Rashid won the Elite 25 Award in Literature from Clik Magazine in 2006.
Rashid believes wholeheartedly in living an authentic, intersectional life at all times. He is an out, black gay man who has experienced chaos and order, wealth and poverty, urban bustle, and rural peace. He brings to his novels as well as his own life a sense of thoughtful disruption. Ultimately, he believes in the principles of everyday brotherhood—that is, the parts of ourselves which keep us connected to one another in meaningful ways.
His books include the Potomac University Series: Lazarus, Covenant, and Epiphany; Yours in the Bond (Men of Beta, Volume I); the Dark Nation Series: Birth of a Dark Nation and Children of Fury; the anthology Time; and The Life and Death of Savion Cortez, a volume of poetry. His short story “Smith & Jones: Young Americans” was first published in 47 – 16 : Short Fiction and Poetry Inspired by David Bowie (Volume I). In 2017, Rashid’s play “Message from ‘The Legba’” was selected as a winner of the OutWrite DC and Theatre Prometheus One Page Play Competition. It was staged in 2018. Rashid won the Elite 25 Award in Literature from Clik Magazine in 2006.
Rashid believes wholeheartedly in living an authentic, intersectional life at all times. He is an out, black gay man who has experienced chaos and order, wealth and poverty, urban bustle, and rural peace. He brings to his novels as well as his own life a sense of thoughtful disruption. Ultimately, he believes in the principles of everyday brotherhood—that is, the parts of ourselves which keep us connected to one another in meaningful ways.
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