Darkest America

Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip Hop

by: Yuval Taylor - Jake Austen

Author: Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

List price: £ 19.99

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Format: Hardback

Publication date: 22 August 2012

Usually shipped within: (info) 5 working days

ISBN: 0393070980 ISBN 13: 9780393070989

Darkest America by Yuval Taylor - Jake Austen

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

Complete description

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. Top page

General info

Publisher & Imprint: WW Norton & Co

City: New York

Pages: 364

More info: height 215 mm width 141 mm weight 432 gr thickness 28 mm

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Age recommended: General/trade

Subject Indexing & Classification Dewey:(DC23) 780.8996073 Library of Congress Subject: Hip-hop - United States - History

Record updated at: 21 May, 2013 time: 00:49

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