The Black Body

by Danquah, Meri Nana-AMA

• ISBN13: 9781583228890
• ISBN10: 1583228896
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-06
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

What does it mean to have, or to love, a black body? Taking on the challenge of interpreting the black bodys dramatic role in American culture are thirty black, white, and biracial contributors-award-winning actors, artists, writers, and comedians-including voices as varied as President Obamas inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, actor and bestselling author Hill Harper, political strategist Kimball Stroud, television producer Joel Lipman, former Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts, and singer-songwriter Jason Luckett.

Author Biography

Meri Nana-Ama Danquahs previous work includes the groundbreaking memoir, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Womans Journey Through Depression, and two critically acclaimed anthologies, Becoming American and Shaking the Tree. She earned an MFA in creative writing and literature from Bennington College. She divides her time between Los Angeles, California, and Accra, Ghana.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 7
Introduction: Body Language	p. 13
"Reading" the Black Body: or, Considering My GrandmotherÆs Hair	p. 31
Blood and Fire	p. 41
Playing the Verses Straight	p. 47
Hair Apparent	p. 55
Even a Brick House Can Blow Down	p. 65
Not As Fast As Joe	p. 75
Hands	p. 91
My Ace in the Hole	p. 99
Initiation of a Desire	p. 109
Our Kind of People	p. 119
A Cinematic Montage of the Black Male Heart	p. 127
The Meaning of Ashy	p. 135
1,000 o'clock: Johnson Time	p. 141
The Unborrowable Blackness of Being	p. 149
A Tail Tale	p. 157
Feeling Tosha Jones	p. 161
Stones and Sticks	p. 167
My Daughter, My Self	p. 175
The New Math	p. 183
What You See Is What You Get	p. 191
The Right Side of the Dial	p. 199
Soul Power	p. 211
The Soul Section	p. 217
Break Skin, Break Spirit	p. 229
The Black Brain	p. 245
Hungry	p. 253
Fear and Loathing	p. 261
In Sickness	p. 269
Sacred Rhythm	p. 279
The Joy in the Journey	p. 287
Notes on Contributors	p. 296
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