Promotional Information

Examines the use of Africa as a figure in the Harlem Renaissance and looks at the place of that movement within a wider Black modernism

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
1. Black Minstrel, Black Modernism 17
2. Migrations of a Mask 46
3. Theorizing Black-on-Black Cross-Culturality 82
4. The Global Economy of Minstrelsy 114
5. In Dahomy 161
6. Claude McKay’s Calypso 207
Notes 249
Bibliography 263
Index 272

About the Author

Louis Chude-Sokei is Professor of English and African American Studies at Boston University.

Reviews

"Louis Chude-Sokei's innovative study not only brings overdue attention to Bert Williams. It deepens our understanding of black modernity and redirects the study of minstrelsy as well. A rich, wide-ranging book, it is filled with resonant insights and brilliant collocations."--Nathaniel Mackey, author of Paracritical Hinge "With theoretical verve and archival aplomb, Louis Chude-Sokei explores an open secret that we too often have preferred to ignore: the central role of black minstrelsy in the origins of the Harlem Renaissance. Starting with the simple fact of Bert Williams's Caribbean origins, he finds the multiple layers of masquerade in any performance of 'race.' A timely, often profound portrait of the dynamics of intraracial difference in diaspora."--Brent Hayes Edwards, author of The Practice of Diaspora "Louis Chude-Sokei's The Last "Darky" offers a provocative study interweaving performance studies, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory to examine the black-on-black minstrelsy of Bert Williams... [His] contributions offer exciting possibilities for further research on black modernism, and the unrealized significance of Williams and other West Indians of the black diaspora."--Adrienne C. Macki, Theatre Journal