“The only colors we’re going to use will be blacker than most blacks. Mm-kay.” Terrance Hayes reads his poem, “Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait.” An homage to the iconic host of the PBS show The Joy of Painting, and an exploration of Blackness: “deep-space black, black-hole black … lampblack and ink black, boot black and blackjack and blacker.” This episode was produced by Helena de Groot and John DeLore. It was sound-designed, mixed, and features original scoring by Helena de Groot. Our theme song this season is “Shadow,” composed and performed by Ernst Reijseger. Additional Links: theparisreview.org/poetry/7883/bob-ross-paints-your-portrait-terrance-hayes https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457422/so-to-speak-by-hayes-terrance Subscribe to the Paris Review