Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, African-American Studies
Cover of the book Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop by Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen, W. W. Norton & Company
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Author: Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen ISBN: 9780393083903
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: August 27, 2012
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen
ISBN: 9780393083903
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: August 27, 2012
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

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