By Rachel Lee »»» Treating Larissa Lai’s poem “ham” — titled after the NASA space chimpanzee — this essay addresses the blackening and Orientalizing of the non-human animal and develops a method attentive to the advancement of high-capital science through transforming non-white human races and non-human animals into experimental laborers. Additionally, it explores the ludic energies of microbiological and primate pleasures as portrayed by Lai — queer proliferations that exceed efforts to channel sex and intimacies toward productive ends.
