sketch a sublime,
of a mind before mines,
barry’s on TV and it looks like everything’s fine.
A backspin in a game of billiards occurs when the cue ball hits another ball with so much force that, upon collision, the cue ball travels the opposite direction. This piece symbolizes how sometimes catapulting your life in a certain direction can backfire and calls attention to how fortune is fickle in the game of life.
In late 2025, the rise of the “quarter zip” on TikTok emerged as a light-hearted joke about professionalism, social mobility, and “leveling up” within the Black community. The trend framed the quarter zip as a visual representation for maturity, respectability, and success. But beneath the humor lies something familiar within our community. This fixation on fashion as a vehicle for social mobility, a concept that is not new; and is rooted in a long history of policing Black bodies and presentation in the United States.
