Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now
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with foreword by Michael Eric Dyson
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Free Press (September 13, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439177554
ISBN-13: 978-1439177556
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
Read the "Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?" Interview with Touré and AALBC.com
Read an AALBC.com review of Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now
Nominated for a 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Non-Fiction
In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced
than ever before. Inspired by a president who is unlike any Black man ever seen
on our national stage, we are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness.
In this provocative new book, iconic commentator and journalist Touré tackles
what it means to be Black in America today.
Touré begins by examining the concept of “Post-Blackness,” a term that defines
artists who are proud to be Black but don't want to be limited by identity
politics and boxed in by race. He soon discovers that the desire to be rooted in
but not constrained by Blackness is everywhere. In Who’s Afraid of
Post-Blackness? he argues that Blackness is infinite, that any identity
imaginable is Black, and that all expressions of Blackness are legitimate.
Here, Touré divulges intimate, funny, and painful stories of how race and racial
expectations have shaped his life and explores how the concept of Post-Blackness
functions in politics, society, psychology, art, culture, and more. He knew he
could not tackle this topic all on his own so he turned to 105 of the most
important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions,
including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Show
More , Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry, Harold Ford
Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, Paul Mooney, New York Governor
David Paterson, Greg Tate, Aaron McGruder, Soledad O'Brien, Kamala Harris, Chuck
D, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and many others.
By engaging this brilliant, eclectic group, and employing his signature insight,
courage, and wit, Touré delivers a clarion call on race in America and how we
can change our perceptions for a better future. Destroying the notion that there
is a correct way of being Black, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? will change how
we perceive race forever.
Never
Drank the Kool-Aid: Essays
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Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Picador (February 21, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312425783
ISBN-13: 978-0312425784
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
His name is Touré--just Touré--and like many of the musicians, athletes, and
celebrities he's profiled, he has affected the way that we think about
culture in America. He has profiled Eminem, 50 Cent, and Alicia Keys for the
cover of Rolling Stone. He's played high-stakes poker with Jay-Z and
basketball with Prince and Wynton Marsalis. In Touré's world, Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. sits beside Condoleezza Rice who sits beside hip-hop pioneer
Tupac Shakur, and all of them are fascinating company.
Never Drank the Kool-Aid is the chronicle of Touré's unparalleled journey
through the American funhouse called pop culture. Its rooms are filled with
creative, arrogant, kind, ordinary, and extraordinary people, most of whom
happen to be famous. It is Touré's gift to be able to see through the
artifice of their world and understand the genuine motivations behind their
achievements--to see who they truly are as people. This is a searingly
funny, surprisingly unguarded, and deeply insightful look at a world few of
us comprehend.
Soul
City: A Novel
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Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Picador (August 11, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312425163
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
Welcome to Soul City, where roses bloom in the cracks of the sidewalk,
musical genres become political platforms, and children use their allowance
money to buy records from the Vinyl Man. It's an unusually peaceful and
magical American community with a strong heritage and sense of unity--at
least, that’s how journalist Cadillac Jackson first finds it when he visits
the city for a magazine story. It isn't long before a mayoral campaign turns
hostile; Cadillac falls hard for Mahogany Sunflower and is taught how to
shed his embattled African-American identity so that he, too, might become a
resident of this fabled city. What he discovers reveals as much about
himself as it does about human nature and the meaning of race in America.
The
Portable Promised Land: Stories
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Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books (April 4, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316738360
ISBN-13: 978-0316738361
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
Welcome to Soul City, the fictional American metropolis where magic is as natural as sunshine. With this inspired collection--in which irreverent humor and sharp-eyed social satire combine to produce unforgettable stories--Toure emerges as one of the most talented and inventive young writers at work today.
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