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Book Cover for: Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, Imani Perry

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People

Imani Perry

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87%

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NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: Time, USA Today, People, AARP, Harper's Bazaar, Today.com, BookRiot, Bustle, LitHub, BookPage, The Millions, Ms., Our Culture, Electric Literature, W, and Vulture

A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue--and its fascinating role in Black history and culture--from National Book Award winner Imani Perry

Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong's question, "What did I do to be so Black and blue?" In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world's favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey--an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as "Blue Black." The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.

Poignant, spellbinding, and utterly original, Black in Blues is a brilliant new work that could only have come from the mind of one of our greatest writers and thinkers. Attuned to the harrowing and the sublime aspects of the human experience, it is every bit as vivid, rich, and striking as blue itself.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Ecco Press
  • Publish Date: Jan 28th, 2025
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.45in - 5.83in - 1.03in - 0.74lb
  • EAN: 9780062977397
  • Categories: African American & BlackBlack Studies (Global)American - African American & Black

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About the Author

Perry, Imani: -

Imani Perry is the National Book Award-winning author of South to America, as well as seven other books of nonfiction. She is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Perry lives between Philadelphia and Cambridge with her two sons.

More books by Imani Perry

Book Cover for: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, Imani Perry
Book Cover for: Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, Imani Perry
Book Cover for: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Imani Perry
Book Cover for: May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, Imani Perry
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