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Performing Blackness in America
by Michael Eric Dyson
For more than thirty years, Michael Eric Dyson has played a prominent role in the nation as a public intellectual, university professor, cultural critic, social activist and ordained Baptist minister. He has presented a rich and resourceful set of ideas about American history and culture. Now for the first time he brings together the various components of his multihued identity and eclectic pursuits.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop, Entertaining Race is a testament to Dyson's consistent celebration of the outsized impact of African American culture and politics on this country. Black people were forced to entertain white people in slavery, have been forced to entertain the idea of race from the start, and must find entertaining ways to make race an object of national conversation. Dyson's career embodies these and other ways of performing Blackness, and in these pages, ranging from 1991 to the present, he entertains race with his pen, voice and body, and occasionally, alongside luminaries like Cornel West, David Blight, Ibram X. Kendi, Master P, MC Lyte, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alicia Garza, John McWhorter, and Jordan Peterson.
Most of this work will be new to readers, a fresh light for many of his long-time fans and an inspiring introduction for newcomers. Entertaining Race offers a compelling vision from the mind and heart of one of America's most important and enduring voices.
"[A] wide-ranging and artfully conceived collection...Throughout, Dyson maintains a firm grip on the cultural moment and offers razor-sharp insights into American history, politics, and art. This is a feast of insights." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Theologian and public intellectual Dyson turns a gimlet eye on the stereotypes and authentic expressions of Black self-presentation...Dyson writes with a broad, well-learned view of Black history...A thoughtful, elegantly argued contribution to the literature of Black lives in America." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Dyson's essays and writings address a rich assortment of thought-provoking topics…[Entertaining Race] offers an expansive and accessible overview of the inquiries of an important social and cultural thinker." - Booklist
"I have known Michael Eric Dyson for nearly 20 years. I have heard him speak many times and been mesmerized by his oratorical magic; I have read his work and been equally impressed by his intellectual brilliance. Entertaining Race is a splendid way to spend quality time reading one of the most remarkable thinkers in America today." - Speaker Nancy Pelosi
"Michael Eric Dyson has been a lodestar for my generation: a brilliant intellectual whose accessible scholarship bridges the university and popular culture...Entertaining Race is a true gift to our culture." - Candace Parker, WNBA champion, 2x WNBA MVP
"For over a quarter century, Michael Eric Dyson has been one of the most visible and impactful public intellectuals in the nation. He has wrestled with critical race theory as a professor, analyzed racial injustice as a social critic, preached a progressive vision of Christianity as a preacher, and engaged in principled resistance as a social activist. Entertaining Race is a compelling and timely meditation on some of the most important issues of our time." - Kimberlé Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum
This information about Entertaining Race was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael Eric Dyson—Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Science, and of Ethics and Society, Divinity School, and NEH Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University―is one of America's premier public intellectuals and the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers including Tears We Cannot Stop, What Truth Sounds Like, JAY-Z, and Long Time Coming. A winner of the 2018 nonfiction Southern Book Prize, Dr. Dyson is also a recipient of two NAACP Image awards and the 2020 Langston Hughes Festival Medallion. Former president Barack Obama has noted: "Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison."
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