Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop

by Yuval Taylor, Jake Austen, Jake Austen

Book Overview

Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen investigate the complex history of black minstrelsy, adopted in the mid-nineteenth century by African American performers who played the grinning blackface fool to entertain black and white audiences. We now consider minstrelsy an embarrassing relic, but once blacks and whites alike saw it as a black art form--and embraced it as such. And, as the authors reveal, black minstrelsy remains deeply relevant to popular black...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393070980
• ISBN13: 9780393070989
• Release Date: August 2012
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.6" x 8.3"