Black Cool: One Thousand Streams Of Blackness (2012)

Book Info

Author

Rebecca Walker

Genre

Memoir & Autobiography

Rating

4.03 of 5 Votes: 1

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ISBN

1593764170 (ISBN13: 9781593764173)

Language

English

Publisher

Soft Skull Press

Shops

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

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About book Black Cool: One Thousand Streams Of Blackness (2012)

I'm about halfway through this book and I think it's a wonderful re-introduction to my former life (where I read books instead of streamed tv to my computer). The essays are good. Some of the authors are familiar, some aren't. They're all personal and all hit on topics near and dear to me. Rape, the "strong black woman" phenomenon, defining hipster, mental illness among artists. I find myself highlighting thoughts, phrases and Ideas I'd like to further explore in my own writing and even my own expression of "Black Cool".... I loved everything about this book except for Henry Louis Gate Jr.'s parenthetical foreword and Margo Davis's essay. The rest of the essays, by outstanding black authors, were well-written and edited. The best thing is that each essay brings a truly unique perspective to the topic of "black cool." Some essays, though, are truly outstanding for their sheer power and good writing, like "Audacity" by dream hampton. Another reason why I really liked this book is because it introduced me to a slew of new, young black writers. "Black" in this book is defined beyond African-American to include Americans with origins in the Caribbean and modern Africa.