Green Book<\/em> fame, a successful academic in the field of psychology before his musical career. Patty Labelle, Trayvon Martin, Michael Anderson, Octavia Butler and Sun Ra all show up in a chapter titled \u201cNine Considerations of Black People in Space.\u201d<\/p>\nThat title is emblematic of how performers become springboards for the author\u2019s contextual exegeses on American life. Master Juba is featured in \u201cSixteen Ways of Looking at Blackface,\u201d a free Black man who danced in saloons and halls for money. He bested the leading white dancer of the time on numerous occasions, both of them performing in black face. He beat him by mimicking the white dancer\u2019s steps, amazing the audience. \u201cHow,\u201d says the author, \u201cwhen the world outside determines worth, it might be vital for the marginalized to find an arena in which they can unmistakably dominate.\u201d Juba doesn\u2019t ultimately win, of course. When he took off his blackface, he was still a black man. He died destitute in London. The author goes on to reference Al Jolson, and the politician who dressed like Michael Jackson in the \u201980\u2019s, all leading up to \u201c\u2026the bare bones of it \u2026 how blackface \u2026 is such a horrifying look.\u201d\u00a0 Worst of all, in the way people slather the blackface on themselves, he is repulsed:\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s the way they think we look like.\u201d\u00a0 Horrifying, indeed.<\/p>\n
In essay after essay, and sometimes in between, the author references the performers and their acts to throw light on systemic racism. Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s performance at the Super Bowl half-time featured \u201c\u2026two dozen Black women, each of them dressed all in black, perfectly coiffed afros radiating from beneath their black berets.\u201d\u00a0 The image of Black Panthers was clear and immediately brought a backlash, explained by the author as when \u201c\u2026Black people who decided to use their platform to not so subtly reclaim that which had been commodified and sanitized in the name of American Comfort, the pushback was often irrational, coming loudest from those who were the most afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most effective essays are the ones in which the object of his attention leads to the true subject\u2014himself. Nowhere is that journey clearer than in \u201cI Would Like to Give Merry Clayton Her Roses.\u201d\u00a0 Merry Clayton was a backup singer famous for the t27 seconds in the Rolling Stones\u2019\u00a0Gimme Shelter <\/em>when\u00a0<\/em>she wails \u201crape, murder.\u201d\u00a0Although she had a career, she lost the child she was carrying at the time, and never got the recognition she deserved. The author then segues to the death of Meredith Hunter, the black man beaten to death at the Stones\u2019 Altamont concert, ironically while they were singing\u00a0Gimme Shelter. <\/em>A song about violence, a beating, the author says:\u00a0 \u201cThere is no reprieve from the machinery of violence and everyone is a tripwire away from setting off the wrong type of explosion.\u201d\u00a0Hunter is buried in an unmarked grave. The essay ends with the author\u2019s plea, \u201cI want shelter and I don\u2019t even know what that means anymore.\u201d<\/p>\nBursting with joy, love, pain, bitterness and poignancy,\u00a0 A Little Devil in America<\/em> is the prose version of the Soul Train dance line, celebrating \u201cBlack people pushing other Black people forward to some boundless and joyful exit.\u201d\u00a0The book resonates long after its finish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bob Moyer reviews a book about black performers in America \u2013 and a great deal more. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. By Hanif Abdurraqib. Random House. 300 pages. $27. This book is much greater than the sum of its pages. Hanif Abdurraqib has created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1082],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary-nonfiction","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2811,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions\/2811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>This book is much greater than the sum of its pages. Hanif Abdurraqib has created an amalgam\u2014a showcase of Black performing artists both known and unknown,\u00a0 a cultural commentary and a personal memoir. He weaves performers and performances in and out of black and white society with the eye of an astute observer and the voice of a poet, all to show \u201c\u2026how we got here in the first place,\u201d the \u201cwe\u201d being America and\u00a0 a guy who grew up Black in Columbus, Ohio. It\u2019s an amazing book.<\/p>\n