Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers

How have African American writers drawn on bad Black men and Black boys as creative touchstones for their evocative and vibrant art? This is the question posed by Howard Rambsy II’s new book, which explores bad men as a central, recurring, and understudied figure in African American literature and music.

By focusing on how various iterations of the bad Black man figure serve as a creative muse and inspiration for literary production, Rambsy puts a wide variety of contemporary African American literary and cultural works in conversation with creativity research for the first time.

Employing concepts such as playfulness, productivity, divergent thinking, and problem finding, Rambsy examines the works of a wide range of writers who have drawn on notions of bad Black men and boys to create innovative and challenging works. These writers include:

• Elizabeth Alexander and Amiri Baraka
• Paul Beatty and Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Tyehimba Jess and Adrian Matejka
• Trymaine Lee and Kevin Young
• Aaron McGruder and Evie Shockley

Through groundbreaking readings, Rambsy demonstrates the fruitfulness of viewing Black literary art through the lens of creativity research, showing how these figures are used to push the boundaries of various genres.