Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393070989)

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.

Author: Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen
ISBN-10: 0393070980
ISBN-13: 9780393070989
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 08/27/2012
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 06/15/2012 pg. 89
Publishers Weekly 06/11/2012 pg. 47
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2012
Ebony 08/01/2012 pg. 36
New York Times Book Review 11/18/2012 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 11/25/2012 pg. 30
Kirkus Best Nonfiction 12/01/2012 pg. 41
Choice 06/01/2013