Acknowledgments |
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xvii | |
PART ONE Essays |
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1 | (14) |
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Are Black People Cooler than White People? |
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15 | (4) |
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19 | (4) |
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Race Natters---The Chattering Classes Convene on Martha's Vineyard |
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23 | (3) |
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In Search of Alice Walker |
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26 | (6) |
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32 | (5) |
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37 | (3) |
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Return to the Planet of the Apes |
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40 | (2) |
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The Sports Taboo: Why blacks are like boys and whites are like girls |
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42 | (7) |
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49 | (2) |
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On the Disappearance of Joe Wood Jr. |
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51 | (2) |
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53 | (6) |
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59 | (9) |
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What Happens When Your 'Hood Is the Last Stop on the White Flight Express? |
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68 | (10) |
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78 | (2) |
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80 | (2) |
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Jungle' |
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82 | (9) |
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PART TWO Hip-Hop Journalism |
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91 | (4) |
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Homophobia: Hip-Hop's Black Eye |
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95 | (6) |
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The Death of Rock n' Roll |
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101 | (4) |
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Confessions of a Hip-Hop Critic |
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105 | (2) |
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107 | (6) |
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113 | (11) |
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124 | (9) |
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Hit 'Em Up: On the Life and Death of Tupac Shakur |
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133 | (10) |
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PART THREE Criticism |
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143 | (9) |
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152 | (7) |
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159 | (4) |
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The Other Side of Paradise---Feminist Pedagogy, Toni Morrison Iconography, and Oprah's Book Club Phenomenon |
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163 | (9) |
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172 | (2) |
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174 | (3) |
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What About Black Romance? |
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177 | (6) |
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``It be's that way sometimes 'cause I can't control the rhyme.''---Notes from the Post-Soul Intelligentsia |
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183 | (12) |
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Facing Unknown Possibilities: Lance Jeffers and the Black Aesthetic |
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195 | (8) |
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PART FOUR Fiction |
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203 | (4) |
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Interpolation: Peace to My Nine |
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207 | (4) |
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211 | (2) |
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The Sun, the Moon, the Stars |
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213 | (10) |
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223 | (4) |
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227 | (2) |
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229 | (9) |
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My Son, My Heart, My Life |
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238 | (14) |
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252 | (4) |
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256 | (6) |
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262 | (3) |
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265 | (4) |
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269 | (4) |
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273 | (8) |
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The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones |
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281 | (1) |
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282 | (6) |
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288 | (8) |
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296 | (3) |
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299 | (8) |
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PART FIVE Poetry |
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307 | (1) |
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307 | (1) |
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308 | (3) |
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311 | (1) |
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311 | (1) |
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312 | (4) |
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Tat Tvam Asi (You Are the One) |
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316 | (2) |
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One Irony of the Caribbean |
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318 | (2) |
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320 | (2) |
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322 | (1) |
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323 | (1) |
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323 | (1) |
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324 | (3) |
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The Yellow Forms of Paradise |
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327 | (2) |
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329 | (3) |
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332 | (2) |
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334 | (1) |
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335 | (1) |
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336 | (1) |
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Visitation: Grenada, 1978 |
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337 | (2) |
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339 | (1) |
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Discubriendo una Fotografia de mi Madre |
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340 | (1) |
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sometime in the summer there's october |
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340 | (4) |
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344 | (1) |
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Toi Derricotte at Quail Ridge Books |
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345 | (1) |
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346 | (1) |
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347 | (1) |
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The Night when Mukoma Told the Devil to Go to Hell |
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348 | (2) |
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Autobiography of a Black Man |
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350 | (1) |
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Spotlight at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe |
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351 | (2) |
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353 | (1) |
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354 | (1) |
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Intermission in three acts in service of PLOT |
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355 | (2) |
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Calypso the outside woman |
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357 | (1) |
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358 | (1) |
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359 | (2) |
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361 | (1) |
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362 | (1) |
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363 | (1) |
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364 | (1) |
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365 | (1) |
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366 | (1) |
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Shrine outside Basquiat's Studio, September 1988 |
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367 | (4) |
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PART SIX Dialogue |
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Black Youth Black Art Black Face---An Address |
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371 | (3) |
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leaving a feminist organization: a personal/poetics |
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374 | (2) |
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we are trying to (have me) conceive |
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376 | (4) |
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if we've gotta live underground and everybody's got cancer/will poetry be enuf?---A Letter to Ntozake Shange |
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380 | (5) |
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385 | (3) |
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The Six-Hour Difference: A Dutch Perspective on the New World |
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388 | (7) |
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Just Beneath the Surface---An Email |
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395 | (3) |
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By Invitation---An Open Letter to the President of South Africa |
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398 | (3) |
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What Happened to Your Generation's Promise of ``Love and Revolution''?---A Letter to Angela Davis |
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401 | (3) |
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An Atlantic Away: A Letter from Africa |
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404 | (15) |
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Contributors |
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419 | (33) |
Self-Portrait: Radcliffe Bailey, the Cover Artist |
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452 | (1) |
Selected Bibliography of Black Literature |
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453 | (4) |
Books Essential to Understanding Hip-Hop Culture |
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457 | (2) |
Permissions |
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459 | (8) |
Index |
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467 | |