A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance

Hanif Abdurraqib

Random House Publishing Group, Mar 30, 2021 - Social Science - 320 pages

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A sweeping, genre-bending “masterpiece” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) exploring Black art, music, and culture in all their glory and complexity—from Soul Train, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Whitney Houston, and Beyoncé

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News, Publishers Weekly

“Gorgeous essays that reveal the resilience, heartbreak, and joy within Black performance.”—Brit Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half

“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.

WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE GORDON BURN PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD AND THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Rolling Stone, Esquire, BuzzFeed, Thrillist, She Reads, BookRiot, BookPage, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, LitHub, Library Journal, Booklist

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Narshkite - LibraryThing

I received this book free in a Goodreads Giveway. As always, this did not impact my review. i can be bought, but it costs way more than a book, even a high quality hardcover. I love Hanif Abdurraqib's ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - muddyboy - LibraryThing

A really thought provoking book,mostly history, but much about the author's autobiographical story. The historical aspect is about Black performers and artists over the years who have had an impact on ...

Contents

• On Times I Have Forced Myself to Dance: 3
• On Going Home as Performance: 23
• An Epilogue for Aretha: 36
• On Times I Have Forced Myself to Dance: 47
• Sixteen Ways of Looking at Blackface: 68
• On the Certain and Uncertain Movement of Limbs: 89
• Nine Considerations of Black People in Space: 112
• My Favorite Thing About Don Shirley: 176
• Would Like to Give Merry Clayton Her Roses: 191
• Beyoncé Performs at the Super Bowl and I Think About: 205
• MOVEMENT: 219
• A Crown: 238
• On the Performance of Softness: 250
• Board Up the Doors Tear Down the Walls: 264
• MOVEMENT: 279
• Acknowledgments: 285

About the author

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in PEN American, Muzzle, Vinyl, and other journals, and his essays and criticism have been published in The New Yorker, Pitchfork, The New York Times, and Fader. His first full-length poetry collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much , was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer book award and nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us was named a book of the year by NPR, Esquire, BuzzFeed, O: The Oprah Magazine, Pitchfork and Chicago Tribune, among others. Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize finalist and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His second collection of poems, A Fortune for Your Disaster, won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School. In 2021, he was named a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance
• Author: Hanif Abdurraqib
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2021
• ISBN: 198480121X, 9781984801210
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / General; Music / Philosophy & Social Aspects; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies