Little Devil in America
Subtitle: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2021
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: ebook
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9781984801210
Copyright date: 2021
Description: “I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.” Inspired by these few words, spoken by Josephine Baker at the 1963 March on Washington, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow and bestselling author Hanif Abdurraqib has written a profound and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Each moment in every performance he examines—whether it’s the twenty-seven seconds in “Gimme Shelter” in which Merry Clayton wails the words “rape, murder,” a schoolyard fistfight, a dance marathon, or the instant in a game of spades right after the cards are dealt—has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib’s own personal history of love, grief, and performance.

Touching on Michael Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Billy Dee Williams, the Wu-Tan Clan, Dave Chappelle, and more, Abdurraqib writes prose brimming with jubilation and pain. With care and generosity, he explains the poignancy of performances big and small, each one feeling intensely familiar and vital, both timeless and desperately urgent. Filled with sharp insight, humor, and heart, A Little Devil in America exalts the Black performance that unfolds in specific moments in time and space—from midcentury Paris to the moon, and back down again to a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio.
Table of contents: title: PERFORMING MIRACLES: On times I have forced myself to dance; title: On marathons and tunnels; title: On going home as performance; title: An epilogue for Aretha; title: SUSPENDING DISBELIEF: This one goes out to all the magical negroes; title: Sixteen ways of looking at blackface; title: On certain and uncertain movement of limbs; title: Nine considerations of black people in space; title: ON MATTERS OF COUNTRY/PROVENANCE: The Josephine Baker monument can never be large enough; title: It is safe to say I have lost many games of spades; title: My favorite thing about Don Shirley; title: I would like to give Merry Clayton her roses; title: Beyoncé performs at the Super Bowl and I think about all the jobs I've hated; title: ANATOMY OF CLOSENESS // CHASING BLOOD: The beef sometimes begins with a dance move; title: Fear: a crown; title: On the performance of softness - Board up the doors, tear down the walls; title: CALLINGS TO REMEMBER