Saltwater Moonshine is Alie Jones’ debut poetry book and a choreopoem that honors her matrilineal Creole heritage through poetry, music, and reflections of love. Utilizing movement, color, and spoken word poetry to honor my brilliant ancestry. My family migrated from Ville Platte, Louisiana to East Palo Alto in the California Bay Area. We don’t always talk about what we lost, what we found, who we became, and what remains.

Cover Art by Marissa Arterberry



“In conversation with mermaids, ancestors and descendants, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Lucille Clifton, countless Black revolutionaries, music, the abundance of the creative and the creation, and more and more, Jones is deeply intentional with each word of and each reference within these poems.”

– Raina J. León, author of black god mother this body