Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop - Hardcover

Taylor, Yuval; Austen, Jake

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393070980 ISBN 13: 9780393070989

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

Synopsis

An exploration and celebration of a controversial tradition that, contrary to popular opinion, is alive and active after more than 150 years.

Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen investigate the complex history of black minstrelsy, adopted in the mid-nineteenth century by African American performers who played the grinning blackface fool to entertain black and white audiences. We now consider minstrelsy an embarrassing relic, but once blacks and whites alike saw it as a black art form―and embraced it as such. And, as the authors reveal, black minstrelsy remains deeply relevant to popular black entertainment, particularly in the work of contemporary artists like Dave Chappelle, Flavor Flav, Spike Lee, and Lil Wayne. Darkest America explores the origins, heyday, and present-day manifestations of this tradition, exploding the myth that it was a form of entertainment that whites foisted on blacks, and shining a sure-to-be controversial light on how these incendiary performances can be not only demeaning but also, paradoxically, liberating. 12 illustrations

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Before Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen wrote this important book, the minstrel era had regressed into vague and dusty African-American history; its aftereffects were felt but little understood. Darkest America plunges us back into an unenlightened age and shows us that the villains and the heroes aren't always who we thought they were. Taylor and Austen's book is a meticulously researched, eye-opening, action-packed read." --James Gavin, author of Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne

About the Author

Yuval Taylor, senior editor at Chicago Review Press, is the author of Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal and coauthor of Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop and Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. He has edited three volumes of African American slave narratives, and his writings have appeared in The Antioch Review, The Guardian, and other publications. He lives in Chicago.

Jake Austen is the editor of Roctober magazine, He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0393070980
• ISBN 13: 9780393070989
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368