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True Crime: An Interview with George Elliott Clarke African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Nathan L. Grant
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: True Crime: An Interview with George Elliott Clarke Nathan L. Grant (bio) George Elliott Clarke, OC ONS* is one of Canada’s most important literary artists, distinguished in poetry, prose, and drama. An internationally known figure of letters, he has lectured, taught, and read across Canada, in the United States, and Europe. From 2012
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Toward "a more complete . . . corpus": Recovering Two Lost Pieces by Marita Bonner African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 M. Genevieve West
Abstract: This “Forgotten Manuscripts” includes two pieces—one entirely undocumented—that were not included in Marita Bonner’s Frye Street and Environs (1987). The first is a modernist essay, “—And I Passed By,” which appeared under a pseudonym in the landmark volume Ebony and Topaz (1927). The second is an undocumented short story, “A Crown of Paste,” which appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier near
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"I dreamt that the world was on fire": Boston King's Memoirs, Visionary Discourse, and Colonial Salvation African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Joe Lockard
Abstract: Memoirs of Boston King, a Black Preacher appeared in serial form in The Methodist Magazine between March and June 1798. King escaped slavery in South Carolina, joined the British army to fight in the Revolutionary War, eventually resettled in Nova Scotia, and emigrated to Sierra Leone. This essay argues that readings of King’s Memoirs solely as a historical document are inadequate. The essay
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Enslavement, Freedom, and Marronage in N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Lisa M. Anderson
Abstract: This essay argues that N. K. Jemisin’s award-winning Broken Earth science fiction trilogy engages the concepts of freedom, enslavement, and marronage through the stories of her orogene narrators Essun and Nessun. Through the complexity of the trilogy, Jemisin challenges her readers to consider the nature of enslavement and freedom, and the challenges and necessity of radical transformation
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My Girl Is a Trip African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Chuck Barrow
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: My Girl Is a Trip Chuck Barrow (bio) She plays with matches. That was really the first thing that stuck out about her. She used to burn everything that found its way into her hands. Daffodils, candy wrappers, beach towels, bubble wrap, cotton balls, popsicle sticks. She was the new girl who came out the sixth row of the school bus— no
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I remember African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Hyacinth L. Andersen
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: I remember Hyacinth L. Andersen (bio) I remember feeling poorwhile growing uphaving to use my siblings’ hand-me-downsregardless of sexhow I longed for a banana-seat bikelike the kids in the neighborhoodrode onand parents whodoled out quarters for arcade gamesfrom a porcelain dish on the dresserbut that was not my realitymoney was always
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The Creed of Grief: (after Rasak Malik ) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Ndubuisi Martins
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The Creed of Grief(after Rasak Malik ) Ndubuisi Martins (bio) The war was set even before the cockcrow. We sat in the hedgerow of griefand alternated hopes and sighs. We had our names as tribes, who knewthe grotto of love; but have lost a common song. You say, it’s well because you look to things distant—the lostcowry of life. You say
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Augusta Savage in Paris African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Kassy Lee
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Augusta Savage in Paris Kassy Lee (bio) My daddy beat the clayout of me. Saw as sinthe salves savedfrom the mud pitsof the South wherewater chisels through rockand is made readyfor the handsof a lonely Negrogirl. At nineteen,I carved facesinto faces. I namestreet urchin my sculptednephew. Though Parisians,as racist as the half-bakedsun
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Editing the Harlem Renaissance ed. by Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Mark Whalan
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Editing the Harlem Renaissance ed. by Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal Mark Whalan Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal, eds. Editing the Harlem Renaissance. Clemson: Clemson UP, 2021. 312 pp. $143.00. In 1951, in The Crisis ’ fortieth anniversary number, W. E. B. Du Bois reminisced, in an essay titled “Editing the Crisis
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In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam by Stephen C. Finley (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Leonard C. McKinnis
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam by Stephen C. Finley Leonard C. McKinnis Stephen C. Finley. In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam. Durham: Duke UP, 2023. 252 pp. $30.00. In In and Out of This World, Stephen Finley offers a
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Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists against Slavery by Peter Wirzbicki (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Lawrence Buell
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists against Slavery by Peter Wirzbicki Lawrence Buell Peter Wirzbicki. Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists against Slavery. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2021. 325 pp. $39.95. This thoughtfully argued book makes an unusual and rather
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The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction by Tessa Roynon (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Patrice Rankine
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction by Tessa Roynon Patrice Rankine Tessa Roynon. The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2021. 296 pp. $35.95. The quest for the Great American Novel was a constant literary trope and a heroic personal pursuit for many writers across the twentieth
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Ralph Ellison: Photographer by Michal Raz-Russo and John F. Callahan (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Lauren Walsh
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Ralph Ellison: Photographer by Michal Raz-Russo and John F. Callahan Lauren Walsh Michal Raz-Russo and John F. Callahan, with contributions by Adam Bradley and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. Ralph Ellison: Photographer. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022. 239 pp. $60.00. Ralph Ellison, who is often characterized as the author of one of the greatest
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For a Pragmatics of the Useless by Erin Manning (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Pilar Martínez Benedí
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: For a Pragmatics of the Useless by Erin Manning Pilar Martínez Benedí Erin Manning. For a Pragmatics of the Useless. Durham: Duke UP, 2020. 384 pp. $29.95. “All black life is neurodiverse life.” Fred Moten’s words, written in a manuscript review of Erin Manning’s The Minor Gesture (2016), admittedly haunt her latest effort
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Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture by Badia Ahad-Legardy (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Brittney Michelle Edmonds
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture by Badia Ahad-Legardy Brittney Michelle Edmonds Badia Ahad-Legardy. Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2021. 224 pp. $26.95. In Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture, Badia Ahad-Legardy disrupts
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Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death by Christopher Freeburg (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Stephen Knadler
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death by Christopher Freeburg Stephen Knadler Christopher Freeburg. Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death. Durham: Duke UP, 2021. 152 pp. $23.95. Even amid unspeakable grief, there has always been Black joy. Black people just existing, loving, laughing, loafing
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Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad ed. by Timothy D. Walker (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 H. Robert Baker
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad ed. by Timothy D. Walker H. Robert Baker Timothy D. Walker, ed. Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2021. 220 pp. $27.95. The Underground Railroad is, in the historical imagination, an over-ground
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Prospect.5 New Orleans: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow by Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28 T. R. Johnson
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Prospect.5 New Orleans: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow by Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi T. R. Johnson Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi. Prospect.5 New Orleans: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow. New York: Rizzoli Electra, 2021. 272 pp. $60.00. Prospect New Orleans, the art triennial that began in the years immediately after Hurricane Katrina
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Contributors African American Review Pub Date : 2024-02-28
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Hyacinth L. Andersen writes poetry and short stories in her spare time. Her work has appeared in Black Magnolias Literary Journal, TimBookTu, and Vocal.media. Lisa M. Anderson is professor in the School of Social Transformation, and associate dean of Academic Affairs in the Graduate College at Arizona State University. Her
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Mentoring a New Generation of African American Haiku Writers: In Conversation with Lenard D. Moore African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Crystal Simone Smith
Abstract: Lenard D. Moore has published more haiku than any other African American writing in the genre. He has also mentored a new generation of African American haiku writers, including Camille Dungy. This interview details his work as a prolific haiku poet and a mentor.
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"The Black People's Side of the Story": The Historical and Transatlantic Roots of the Movement for Black Lives African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Hannah-Rose Murray
Abstract: Black freedom fighters have always been at the forefront pushing the United States to accept the ideals it was founded on and were—are—unrelenting in their groundbreaking campaigns for abolition, equality, and social justice. In this article, I argue that to add nuance and a greater understanding to the philosophies developed by such freedom fighters, it is necessary to evaluate the transatlantic
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"Let us look at the immediate background of this young poet": Langston Hughes and the Sociological Critique of Taste African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Louisa Olufsen Layne
Abstract: Langston Hughes’s classic essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” is commonly read as a defense of Black racial pride. I argue that it simultaneously performs a subtle but radical sociological critique of the Kantian paradigm of disinterested taste. “The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain” should therefore be read as a proto-sociology of literature that highlights the blind spot in
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The Education of Milkman Dead: The Bildungsroman as Aesthetic Cycle in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Dokubo Melford Goodhead
Abstract: Rational critique of one’s existential condition and questions of why, where, when, who, what dominate Morrison’s Song of Solomon. As she clearly shows in the novel, it is in finding answers to these questions that one is better able to deal with one’s existential condition and, where necessary, to make the transition from fragmentation to wholeness as a subject dealing with the history and
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Songs of Reunion: "Information Wanted" Advertisements, Minnie's Sacrifice, and the Call-and-Response Tradition African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Crystal S. Donkor
Abstract: This article reads Frances Harper’s serialized novel, Minnie’s Sacrifice (1868), as a response to the anxieties of loss and reunion captured in the “Information Wanted” feature of the Christian Recorder. When mutually assessed, each text augments the other, harkening back to the African American cultural tradition of call-and-response. I explore this tradition’s inversion in the periodical
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Humans and the Red-Hot Stove: Hurston's Nature-Caution Theorizing in Their Eyes Were Watching God African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Heather Sharlene Higgs Randall
Abstract: This paper gives critical attention to a porch conversation about nature and caution in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, identifying the conversation as a tool through which Hurston recasts the traditional anthropological binary of nature and culture. In conversation with Hurston’s literary critics as well as scholars of environmental humanities and multispecies studies
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Postcolonialism Goes Queer: Concealments and Disclosures in Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Sławomir Studniarz
Abstract: This article discusses All Our Names, the 2014 novel by Dinaw Mengestu, an Ethiopian-born, American immigrant writer. The narrative focuses on two figures: a young Ethiopian dreamer caught in the postcolonial military struggle in Uganda who later seeks safe haven in the US, and a single white American woman in her early thirties named Helen, a social worker at Lutheran Relief Services. Such
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Agneu African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Shelonda Montgomery
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Agneu Shelonda Montgomery (bio) She looks at him as if she knows him. He knows her well. They stand staring into each other’s eyes across a small wooden church that rests comfortably on the outskirts of a quaint town. There are several pews between them, which are full of parishioners who are readying themselves for their departure. He
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Do We Ever Know (When) We Are Dead?, and: Prison Diary African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Mildred Kiconco Barya
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Do We Ever Know (When) We Are Dead?, and: Prison Diary Mildred Kiconco Barya (bio) Do We Ever Know (When) We Are Dead? Like the black man who is shot fightingfor justice he doesn’t believe in anymore, but keeps momentum all the same. Now he’ssurrounded by dried twigs, burnt tires, men, women, and children in tears. As he lifts hisnumb
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At the Edges, and: Sky Closing African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Adam Day
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: At the Edges, and: Sky Closing Adam Day (bio) At the Edges When the riverholds you downyou’re supposed to drown,right? Use valueand the laboring body;a we becomingby radically negatingwhat others have doneto bodies again. Again.But the invisiblefind a way, askinghow people might give. Sky Closing Chunk blown outthe levee, makingseveral
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Historiography of Injustice, and: Negotiating Oppression, and: Manifest Destiny African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Deidra Suwanee Dees
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Historiography of Injustice, and: Negotiating Oppression, and: Manifest Destiny Deidra Suwanee Dees (bio) Historiography of Injustice andrew jackson called my nameto see if he could accept the blame for killing off the redstick menat the battle ofhorseshoe bend: mr. jackson, it’s too latefor you to renegotiate. Muscogee land was not for
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Homage to Alejo Carpentier, and: Skin, and: Cuban Triolet, and: Parable of the Seeds African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Orlando Ricardo Menes
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Homage to Alejo Carpentier, and: Skin, and: Cuban Triolet, and: Parable of the Seeds Orlando Ricardo Menes (bio) Homage to Alejo Carpentier On this Columbus Day one thousand milesfrom where his caravels cast anchors of greed & soon plowedour Edenic islands to sugar’s Babylon, I sing to you,Don Alejo, who redeemed our islands’ historywith
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Alternate Universe in Which I Am Unfazed by My White High School Classmates, and: Lazarus African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Marcel Ray
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Alternate Universe in Which I Am Unfazed by My White High School Classmates, and: Lazarus Marcel Ray (bio) Alternate Universe in Which I Am Unfazed by My White High School Classmates inspired by Olivia Gatwood when the blonde girl in social studies tells me i should grow an afro, i don’t put my hood on. instead, i tell her to grow an upper
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Kind of Blue: Variation Two, and: Definition of Blue, and: Heartache Ghazal, and: How to Cry without Tears, and: Root of My Blues, and: Emancipation Blues African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Lolita Stewart-White
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Kind of Blue: Variation Two, and: Definition of Blue, and: Heartache Ghazal, and: How to Cry without Tears, and: Root of My Blues, and: Emancipation Blues Lolita Stewart-White (bio) Kind of Blue: Variation Two Again, these damn doctors ask to weigh me.Don’t they know the scale is a fortune teller,its numbers my enemy? Don’t they see my
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Call My Name, Clemson: Documenting the Black Experience in an American University Community by Rhondda Robinson Thomas (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Colleen Eils
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Call My Name, Clemson: Documenting the Black Experience in an American University Community by Rhondda Robinson Thomas Colleen Eils Rhondda Robinson Thomas. Call My Name, Clemson: Documenting the Black Experience in an American University Community. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2020. 284 pp. $19.95. In June 2020, in the wake of
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The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship by Deborah Willis (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship by Deborah Willis Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby Deborah Willis. The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship. New York: New York UP, 2021. 256 pp. $35.00. This lavishly illustrated publication provides a visual and textual archive
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Cross-Racial Class Protest in Antebellum American Literature by Timothy Helwig (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Gero Guttzeit
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Cross-Racial Class Protest in Antebellum American Literature by Timothy Helwig Gero Guttzeit Timothy Helwig. Cross-Racial Class Protest in Antebellum American Literature. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2020. 218 pp. $27.95. In his monograph Cross-Racial Class Protest in Antebellum American Literature, Timothy Helwig applies
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Puritan Spirits in the Abolitionist Imagination by Kenyon Gradert, and: Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum Culture by Teresa A. Goddu (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Robert Fanuzzi
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Puritan Spirits in the Abolitionist Imagination by Kenyon Gradert, and: Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum Culture by Teresa A. Goddu Robert Fanuzzi Kenyon Gradert. Puritan Spirits in the Abolitionist Imagination. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2020. 256 pp. $54.00. Teresa A. Goddu. Selling Antislavery:
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Emancipation's Daughters: Reimagining Black Femininity and the National Body by Riché Richardson (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Carol E. Henderson
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Emancipation’s Daughters: Reimagining Black Femininity and the National Body by Riché Richardson Carol E. Henderson Riché Richardson. Emancipation’s Daughters: Reimagining Black Femininity and the National Body. Durham: Duke UP, 2021. 329 pp. $27.95. At a time when the United States continues to wrestle with matters of race
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The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging by Rebecca Wanzo (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Henry B. Wonham
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging by Rebecca Wanzo Henry B. Wonham Rebecca Wanzo. The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging. New York: New York UP, 2020. 245 pp. $29.00. Rebecca Wanzo begins her study of African American comic art and political
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"Black People Are My Business": Toni Cade Bambara's Practices of Liberation by Thabiti Lewis (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Danica Savonick
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: “Black People Are My Business”: Toni Cade Bambara’s Practices of Liberation by Thabiti Lewis Danica Savonick Thabiti Lewis. “Black People Are My Business”: Toni Cade Bambara’s Practices of Liberation. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2020. 252 pp. $36.99. Toni Cade Bambara (1939–95) was a revolutionary figure in her historical moment
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Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction by Richard Jean So (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 J. D. Porter
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction by Richard Jean So J. D. Porter Rhard Jean So. Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction. New York: Columbia UP, 2020. 240 pp. $30.00. Richard Jean So’s Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar
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Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City by William Sites (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 T. R. Johnson
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City by William Sites T. R. Johnson William Sites. Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2020. 321 pp. $30.00. Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City by William Sites is an excellent interdisciplinary study that, like Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans
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Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History of Black Arts Movement Theater and Performance by La Donna L. Forsgren (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Aimee Zygmonski
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History of Black Arts Movement Theater and Performance by La Donna L. Forsgren Aimee Zygmonski La Donna L. Forsgren. Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History of Black Arts Movement Theater and Performance. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2020. 360 pp. $34.95. Sistuhs in the Struggle: An Oral History
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That Middle World: Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing by Julia S. Charles, and: Relative Races: Genealogies of Interracial Kinship in Nineteenth-Century America by Brigitte Fielder (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Derek C. Maus
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: That Middle World: Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing by Julia S. Charles, and: Relative Races: Genealogies of Interracial Kinship in Nineteenth-Century America by Brigitte Fielder Derek C. Maus Julia S. Charles. That Middle World: Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina
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Afro-Creole Poetry in French from Louisiana's Radical Civil War-Era Newspapers: A Bilingual Edition by Clint Bruce (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Brian O'Keeffe
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Afro-Creole Poetry in French from Louisiana’s Radical Civil War-Era Newspapers: A Bilingual Edition by Clint Bruce Brian O’Keeffe Clint Bruce. Afro-Creole Poetry in French from Louisiana’s Radical Civil War-Era Newspapers: A Bilingual Edition. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2020. 364 pp. $40.00. This handsome
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African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song ed. by Kevin Young (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Gordon Thompson
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song ed. by Kevin Young Gordon Thompson Kevin Young, ed. African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song. New York: Library of America, 2020. 1170 pp. $45.00. Anthologies abound. While achieving maximum inclusivity is critical, perhaps the chief value of such collections
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Contributors African American Review Pub Date : 2023-08-01
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Mildred Kiconco Barya is a Ugandan poet, prose writer, and associate professor at UNC-Asheville. She’s the author of four full-length poetry collections, with the most recent being The Animals of My Earth School (Terrapin, 2023). Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Tin
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The (Neo-)Slave Narrative and the Plantationocene African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Teresa A. Goddu
Abstract: Utilizing the concept of the Plantationocene, which articulates how racial capitalism created and continues to shape the climate crisis, this essay connects the slave narrative to the contemporary neo-slave narrative to show how the plantation serves as the “ugly blueprint” (McKittrick) of the climate crisis. It also traces the alternative ecologies of resistance and repair that this literature
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Carceral Aesthetics Justified African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Michael Kelly
Abstract: Nicole Fleetwood’s recent book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, is distinctive because she engages with “carceral aesthetics,” yet she does not provide a justification for it. I think Herbert Marcuse is right, however, that we must justify aesthetics in relation to any space where human misery reigns. Carceral aesthetics can be justified in four ways: the etymology of
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Baseball and Beloved Community in the Memoirs and Poetry of E. Ethelbert Miller African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Emily Ruth Rutter
Abstract: Developing what I term a “baseball imaginary,” E. Ethelbert Miller invokes the national pastime in his memoirs and poetry as a vehicle for reckoning with antiblackness on the one hand and realizing the promise of beloved community on the other. Indeed, Miller has contributed more to the Black baseball literature corpus than any other writer, but his renderings of baseball have yet to receive
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"Some Damn Body": Black Feminist Embodiment in the Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Marina Magloire
Abstract: Despite her fame as a poet, Lucille Clifton’s practice of spirit writing remains little known and understudied. Clifton’s familial practice of automatic writing and spirit communication spanned decades and encompassed everything from past life regressions to conversations with departed spirits as diverse as Langston Hughes, Beethoven, Billie Holiday, and Jesus. This article uses Clifton’s
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Leroy's Blues African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Terry Sanville
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Leroy’s Blues Terry Sanville (bio) They don’t build ships like those anymore. These days, cargo vessels are floating bricks, huge container craft a couple of blocks long. But in 1969, freighters that could haul maybe 7,000 tons steamed upriver to Newport, a supply terminal a few klicks outside of Saigon. I worked there as a stevedore in
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In Memory of Etheridge Knight, and: The Harness African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Herbert Woodward Martin
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: In Memory of Etheridge Knight, and: The Harness Herbert Woodward Martin (bio) In Memory of Etheridge Knight a heavy sighexuded from his lungshe must have been wearythis nation takes it out of youand that seems to be its very goal;a light has been quietly extinguisheda journey has fallen in a night of darknessa black hole ripped into the
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Barry Jenkins, Meet D. W. Griffith, and: Portrait of a Lynched Boy African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Murleve Roberts
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Barry Jenkins, Meet D. W. Griffith, and: Portrait of a Lynched Boy Murleve Roberts (bio) Barry Jenkins, Meet D. W. Griffith after Tyehimba Jess I am a man, I am a man, Yet and as the Loved One, as the Chosen One of God, I can never drop the phrase at that. I am bruised. I am black; But as the righteous do, I have risen: I am a man, reborn
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Poem 9, and: Poem 35, and: Poem 219, and: Poem 27 African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Dennis Williams II
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Poem 9, and: Poem 35, and: Poem 219, and: Poem 27 Dennis Williams II (bio) Poem 9 in the chest of every black manwith the audacity to loveis a black child’s heart. this heart is always torn to piecesbut will always reassemble itself. this heart has always self-repairedinto something bigger,stronger, more caring,into something of lovethat
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Contributors African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Teresa A. Goddu is professor of English and American studies at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation (Columbia UP, 1997) and Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America (U of Pennsylvania P, 2020). Her current research focuses on contemporary US
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Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840–1865 by William L. Andrews (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Eric Gardner
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840–1865 by William L. Andrews Eric Gardner William L. Andrews. Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840–1865. New York: Oxford UP, 2019. 389 pp. $42.95 cloth/$29.95 paper. Few scholars have
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Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century by Aston Gonzalez (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Ryan Charlton
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century by Aston Gonzalez Ryan Charlton Aston Gonzalez. Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2020. 324 pp. $29.95. In Visualizing Equality, Aston Gonzalez
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Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press by Kim Gallon (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Bernie Lombardi
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press by Kim Gallon Bernie Lombardi Kim Gallon. Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2020. 216 pp. $26.00. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, a period characterized by loosening
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The Short Stories of Frank Yerby ed. by Veronica T. Watson, and: Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays ed. by Matthew Teutsch (review) African American Review Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Kinohi Nishikawa
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Short Stories of Frank Yerby ed. by Veronica T. Watson, and: Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays ed. by Matthew Teutsch Kinohi Nishikawa Veronica T. Watson, ed. The Short Stories of Frank Yerby. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2020. 178 pp. $99.00. Matthew Teutsch, ed. Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays. Jackson: