About the book
It won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize, and was a National Book Award finalist.
Curated by intendle
Published
Art, Culture & Creative Life
A Little Devil in America
Notes in Praise of Black Performance
Written by
Published by
Random House (Penguin Random House)
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance is an essay collection by the poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib, published by Random House in March 2021.
- Published
- 2021
- Pages
- 320
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
Hanif Abdurraqib writes about culture the way the best DJs mix records - associatively, rhythmically, with sudden turns that land as revelation.
A Little Devil in America is a book-length meditation on Black performance, moving from Josephine Baker to Soul Train, from card games to Whitney Houston, from Merry Clayton's wail on 'Gimme Shelter' to the author's own griefs. It is criticism, memoir and elegy braided so tightly they become one form.
Abdurraqib's gift is to make you feel the stakes of a dance move or a note, to show how performance carries the weight of a people's joy and survival. intendle recommends it as a masterpiece of the essay, dazzling in its music and generous in its attention.
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burn Prize and a National Book Award finalist, it confirmed its author, a MacArthur Fellow, as one of the essential critics of his generation.
The book
At a glance
Sample file
Look inside
Pages
320
Published
2021
Random House (Penguin Random House)
Where to buy
Format
Hardcover
First edition
Language
English
Art, Culture & Creative Life
ISBN
978-1984801197
Your library
Keep it for later
More in
