{"title":"Series: Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past \/ Present \/ Future","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the dynamic and complex narratives of the African diaspora with our compelling series, \u003cem\u003eBlack Lives in the Diaspora: Past \/ Present \/ Future\u003c\/em\u003e. This thoughtfully curated collection delves into the histories, contemporary experiences, and future possibilities of Black communities around the globe. Each book in this collection offers a profound insight into the cultural, social, and political dimensions that have shaped the Black diaspora.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmongst these transformative titles, \u003cem\u003eTextual Life\u003c\/em\u003e stands out as a pivotal exploration of identity and resistance through literary and historical lenses. It is a testament to the resilience and creativity of Black individuals and communities, offering readers both an educational journey and a conversation starter about pivotal moments and movements within the diaspora.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether you are a history buff, a student of contemporary social issues, or someone seeking to understand the evolving narratives of Black lives, this collection is an essential resource. Join us in uncovering these stories that span from past to future, narrating tales of struggle, triumph, and hope.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"imagining-eden-by-jamall-a-calloway-9780231209236","title":"Imagining Eden","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA number of Black writers have drawn inspiration from the biblical tale of the expulsion from paradise. In this deeply interdisciplinary and poetically written book, Jamall A. Calloway explores the presence of Eden and the aftermath of the Fall in works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, and Alice Walker. In reflecting on Eden, he contends, these writers rethought what paradise could mean in the face of the catastrophes of the Black experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy placing key novels in conversation with major religious thinkers, Calloway shows how Black writers adopted Edenic motifs to rebut orthodox interpretations of Genesis, with striking theological implications. He argues that Baldwin’s \u003ci\u003eGiovanni’s Room\u003c\/i\u003e counters St. Paul’s proclamations on the mortification of the flesh, reads Morrison’s \u003ci\u003eParadise\u003c\/i\u003e against St. Augustine’s \u003ci\u003eCity of God\u003c\/i\u003e as a challenge to the exclusions of the Garden of Eden, investigates Wright’s use of Søren Kierkegaard’s interpretation of Adam in \u003ci\u003eThe Outsider\u003c\/i\u003e, and demonstrates how Walker’s \u003ci\u003eThe Color Purple\u003c\/i\u003e and Catholic theologian Ivone Gebara offer a radical reconceptualization of the serpent in Genesis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book concludes with a reflection on Lucille Clifton’s poetry. Revealing the richness of Black writers’ engagement with theology, \u003ci\u003eImagining Eden\u003c\/i\u003e is a profoundly original consideration of literature and liberation, God and humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46791578255596,"sku":"9780231209236","price":60.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8149063482270.jpg?v=1756984631"},{"product_id":"textual-life-by-wendell-marsh-9780231210713","title":"Textual Life","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTextual Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a groundbreaking book that recasts the role of knowledge in the making of a colonial and postcolonial nation. It makes a case for a new literary and intellectual-historical approach to Islam in Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Senegalese Muslim scholar Shaykh Musa Kamara (1864–1945) wrote \u003ci\u003eHistory of the Blacks\u003c\/i\u003e, a monumental history of West Africa, during a time when colonial discourses asserted that Africans lacked both writing and history. He sought to publish a bilingual Arabic and French edition of the book by working with humanists in colonial institutions, but the project was ultimately undermined by the disregard of the French state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTextual Life\u003c\/i\u003e considers Kamara’s story as a parable about the fate of the humanities amid epistemic and technological change. Wendell H. Marsh argues that Kamara’s scholarship reflected what he calls the textual attitude, an orientation to the world mediated by reading. Colonial humanists shared this attitude even while upholding racial and religious hierarchies, and they took an interest in African texts and traditions. However, the bureaucrats and technocrats who succeeded them disdained such dialogue—for reasons that bear a striking resemblance to the algorithmic antihumanism ascendant today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on Kamara’s body of work, colonial archival documents, and postcolonial knowledge production within Senegal, \u003ci\u003eTextual Life\u003c\/i\u003e offers a decolonial vision of the humanities. By engaging with African and Muslim intellectual resources, Marsh shows how thinkers like Kamara, who were subjected to colonialism, can help us find a future after empire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46794113679596,"sku":"9780231210713","price":124.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8163833482270.jpg?v=1757019450"},{"product_id":"black-arts-black-muslims-by-ellen-mclarney-9780231219426","title":"Black Arts, Black Muslims","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, prominent figures in the Black Arts Movement (BAM) converted to Islam and adopted new names. Poets such as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Muhammad Touré, and Marvin X incorporated Islamic words and expressions, references to the Qur'an, and Arabic script, as well as symbols like the crescent star and depictions of Islamic architecture and clothing. They connected places like Harlem, Chicago, Newark, and Oakland to locales in the Muslim world such as Timbuktu, Songhai, and Mecca. These artists also played a pivotal role in developing Black studies and creating alternatives to the Eurocentrism of the American educational system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEllen McLarney explores how BAM writers identified with Islam as integral to the African American cultural, spiritual, and intellectual heritage. Examining poetry, visual art, music, drama, and mixed-media collaborations, she traces the emergence of a new kind of Islamic art rooted in the African American experience. Their works protested scientific racism, police brutality, colonial domination, and economic oppression while resurrecting a suppressed Islamic past and sharing spiritual visions of a new kind of future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on interviews, fieldwork, archival research, and close analysis of key works, \u003cem\u003eBlack Arts, Black Muslims\u003c\/em\u003e reveals how BAM redefined Black art, Islamic poetics, and Black Muslim aesthetics in the struggle for racial justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47306895360236,"sku":"9780231219426","price":110.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8250963482270.jpg?v=1771065771"},{"product_id":"i-hear-freedom-by-cisco-bradley-9780231221573","title":"I Hear Freedom","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the 1960s, a musical revolution took place in the industrial landscapes of Cleveland and Detroit. Disenchanted with the strictures of bebop, musicians forged a new style-free jazz-that took inspiration from a vast range of sources, including figures such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane; African and Middle Eastern music; avant-garde modernism; and the politics and aesthetics of Black Power. How did this radical movement come about, and what explains its creativity and vitality? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz and its connection to the broader Black experience. Cisco Bradley demonstrates that although this part of the free jazz movement arose in the Midwest, it is deeply rooted in the musical traditions and aesthetics that the Great Migration brought from the South. As postwar urban renewal projects fractured Black communities, musicians drew on this heritage to create new forms of expression. Figures such as Albert Ayler, Donald Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Charles Moore, and Faruq Z. Bey developed distinct artistic visions, often influenced by their involvement in Black liberation movements. I Hear Freedom chronicles the Cleveland and Detroit free jazz scenes, and it follows musicians to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and beyond. A revelatory oral history, this book shows that free jazz is a uniquely Black style shaped by mobility, community, and the struggle for freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47306908303596,"sku":"9780231221573","price":110.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8272433482270.jpg?v=1771068034"},{"product_id":"vital-and-valuable-by-james-v-koch-9780231208994","title":"Vital and Valuable","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistorically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are a crucial element of higher education in the United States. As of 2021, there were more than 100 HBCUs, with a total enrolment of approximately 300,000 students. Many of the most famed figures in African American history attended HBCUs, and the alumni of these institutions have a strong track record of upward mobility and professional attainment. However, the value and contributions of HBCUs are too often overlooked and underappreciated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eVital and Valuable\u003c\/em\u003e, two distinguished economists provide a groundbreaking analysis of HBCUs. James V. Koch and Omari H. Swinton give a balanced assessment of the performance of HBCUs, examining metrics such as admissions and enrolment trends, graduation and retention rates, administrative expenses, spending on intercollegiate athletics, and student debt. They emphasise the distinctive features that make HBCUs what they are, considering whom they serve and how, while contextualising these institutions within the landscape of American higher education.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on this analysis, Koch and Swinton offer actionable policy recommendations that can help HBCUs build on their successes and address their weaknesses. They stress that empirical data on educational outcomes is essential to effective leadership of individual institutions as well as policy decisions that affect HBCUs. \u003cem\u003eVital and Valuable\u003c\/em\u003e is essential reading for policymakers and experts in the field of higher education as well as a broader public interested in understanding the contributions of HBCUs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47464765456620,"sku":"9780231208994","price":52.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231208994-vital-and-valuable.jpg?v=1775053835"},{"product_id":"an-ethos-of-blackness-by-vivaldi-jean-marie-9780231209779","title":"An Ethos of Blackness","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRastafari is an Afrocentric social and religious movement that emerged among Afro-Jamaican communities in the 1930s and has many adherents in the Caribbean and worldwide today. This book is a groundbreaking account of Rastafari, demonstrating that it provides a normative conception of Blackness for people of African descent that resists Eurocentric and colonial ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVivaldi Jean-Marie examines Rastafari's core beliefs and practices, arguing that they constitute a distinctively Black system of norms and values—at once an ethos and a cosmology. He traces Rastafari's origins in enslaved people's strategies of resistance, Jamaican Revivalism, and Garveyism, showing how it incorporates ancestral religious traditions and emancipatory politics. \u003cem\u003eAn Ethos of Blackness\u003c\/em\u003e draws out the significance of practices such as avoiding technological exploitation of natural artifacts and the belief in living in harmony with the natural order. Jean-Marie considers Rastafari's theology, exploring its reinterpretation of biblical scriptures and its foundations in the rejection of Christianity's Eurocentrism and racism. However, he insists, before Rastafari can fulfill its promise of liberation for people of African descent, it must confront its failure to include women and redress sexism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough rigorous and sensitive reflections on Rastafari culture and cosmology, this book offers deeply original insights into the Black theological imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47470043988204,"sku":"9780231209779","price":56.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231209779-an-ethos-of-blackness.jpg?v=1775209020"},{"product_id":"turn-the-world-upside-down-by-imani-d-owens-9780231208895","title":"Turn the World Upside Down","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the first half of the twentieth century, Black hemispheric culture grappled with the legacies of colonialism, U.S. empire, and Jim Crow. As writers and performers sought to convey the terror and the beauty of Black life under oppressive conditions, they increasingly turned to the labour, movement, speech, sound, and ritual of everyday \"folk.\" Many critics have perceived these representations of folk culture as efforts to reclaim an authentic past. Imani D. Owens recasts Black creators' relationship to folk culture, emphasising their formal and stylistic innovations and experiments in self-invention that reach beyond the local to the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTurn the World Upside Down\u003c\/em\u003e explores how Black writers and performers reimagined folk forms through the lens of the unruly—that which cannot be easily governed, disciplined, or managed. Drawing on a transnational and multilingual archive—from Harlem to Havana, from the Panama Canal Zone to Port-au-Prince—Owens considers the short stories of Eric Walrond and Jean Toomer; the ethnographies of Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Price-Mars; the recited poetry of Langston Hughes, Nicolás Guillén, and Eusebia Cosme; and the essays, dance work, and radio plays of Sylvia Wynter. Owens shows how these figures depict folk culture—and Blackness itself—as a site of disruption, ambiguity, and flux.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTheir works reveal how Black people contribute to the stirrings of modernity while being excluded from its promises. Ultimately, these works do not seek to render folk culture more knowable or worthy of assimilation, but instead provide new forms of radical world-making.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471862022380,"sku":"9780231208895","price":60.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/0c0f684c774149a69abe5ca5eb22cf15.jpg?v=1775693231"},{"product_id":"vital-and-valuable-by-james-v-koch-9780231208987","title":"Vital and Valuable","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistorically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are a crucial element of higher education in the United States. As of 2021, there were more than 100 HBCUs, with a total enrollment of approximately 300,000 students. Many of the most famed figures in African American history attended HBCUs, and the alumni of these institutions have a strong track record of upward mobility and professional attainment. However, the value and contributions of HBCUs are too often overlooked and underappreciated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eVital and Valuable\u003c\/em\u003e, two distinguished economists provide a groundbreaking analysis of HBCUs. James V. Koch and Omari H. Swinton give a balanced assessment of the performance of HBCUs, examining metrics such as admissions and enrollment trends, graduation and retention rates, administrative expenses, spending on intercollegiate athletics, and student debt. They emphasize the distinctive features that make HBCUs what they are, considering whom they serve and how, while contextualising these institutions within the landscape of American higher education.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on this analysis, Koch and Swinton offer actionable policy recommendations that can help HBCUs build on their successes and address their weaknesses. They stress that empirical data on educational outcomes is essential to effective leadership of individual institutions as well as policy decisions that affect HBCUs. \u003cem\u003eVital and Valuable\u003c\/em\u003e is essential reading for policymakers and experts in the field of higher education as well as a broader public interested in understanding the contributions of HBCUs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471884763372,"sku":"9780231208987","price":209.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/5f15feb94a4cf226796c63897f04b077.jpg?v=1775692891"},{"product_id":"i-hear-freedom-by-cisco-bradley-9780231221566","title":"I Hear Freedom","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1960s, a musical revolution took place in the industrial landscapes of Cleveland and Detroit. Disenchanted with the strictures of bebop, musicians forged a new style—free jazz—that took inspiration from a vast range of sources. These included figures such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane; African and Middle Eastern music; avant-garde modernism; and the politics and aesthetics of Black Power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHow did this radical movement come about, and what explains its creativity and vitality?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on interviews with dozens of musicians, \u003cem\u003eI Hear Freedom\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of free jazz and its connection to the broader Black experience. Cisco Bradley demonstrates that, although this part of the free jazz movement arose in the Midwest, it is deeply rooted in the musical traditions and aesthetics that the Great Migration brought from the South. As postwar urban renewal projects fractured Black communities, musicians drew on this heritage to create new forms of expression. Figures such as Albert Ayler, Donald Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Charles Moore, and Faruq Z. Bey developed distinct artistic visions, often influenced by their involvement in Black liberation movements.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI Hear Freedom\u003c\/em\u003e chronicles the Cleveland and Detroit free jazz scenes, and it follows musicians to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and beyond. A revelatory oral history, this book shows that free jazz is a uniquely Black style shaped by mobility, community, and the struggle for freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47934092574956,"sku":"9780231221566","price":422.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231221566-i-hear-freedom.jpg?v=1783894843"},{"product_id":"the-black-aerial-imagination-by-delali-kumavie-9780231222518","title":"The Black Aerial Imagination","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross a range of literary texts, Black writers depict taking flight to escape systems of subordination from the Middle Passage and the plantation to the present-day racialised order. While flight, air, and aviation technologies have long held out the promise of freedom, they also function as devices for constraining Black mobility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Black Aerial Imagination\u003c\/em\u003e, Delali Kumavie examines how aviation and flight have shaped Black lives and the global Black cultural imagination. Considering works by African and diasporic writers such as Kofi Anyidoho, Toni Morrison, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, she argues that representations of aviation and air travel reveal the structures circumscribing Black existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKumavie interweaves narratives of flying Africans with the airlessness of the slave dungeons, aspirations for flight with the terrors of the air, and global airline travel with incarceration to show how stories of flight connect transatlantic slavery to the racialised violence of borders, the surveillance of international movement, and the postcolonial nation-state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough deft, nuanced readings of African and African diasporic literature, this book provides vital new insights into the limits of aerial mobility and the persistence of anti-Black violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47934295081196,"sku":"9780231222518","price":393.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231222518-the-black-aerial-imagination.jpg?v=1783909632"},{"product_id":"theorizing-fallism-by-a-kayum-ahmed-9780231212724","title":"Theorizing Fallism","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2015, students at the University of Cape Town ignited a movement that would reverberate across the globe by demanding the removal of a statue of the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. What began as a protest against a single monument became Rhodes Must Fall: a confrontation with colonial legacies at South African universities that inspired a movement at Oxford and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA. Kayum Ahmed tells the powerful story of Rhodes Must Fall, tracing the emergence of a new decolonial framework, Fallism, and its trajectory from Africa to empire. Drawing on archival research and interviews with activists, he interprets Fallism as both a critique of the university—rooted in patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism—and a broader decolonial theory. Ahmed reveals how students combined acts of defiance with deeper forms of intellectual insurgency to challenge Eurocentric curricula, linguistic hierarchies, and the silencing of Black epistemologies. In so doing, they transformed Black pain—the source of the uprising—into a collective struggle for Black liberation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy following Fallism's journey, this book demonstrates how student movements create new vocabularies of resistance that transcend geographies of power. It underscores why universities remain battlegrounds in global struggles, from conflicts over statues and curricula to pro-Palestinian protests. Both a history of a movement and a theoretical intervention, \u003cem\u003eTheorizing Fallism\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates the enduring influence of students to challenge entrenched structures of knowledge and power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47934337220844,"sku":"9780231212724","price":422.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231212724-theorizing-fallism.jpg?v=1783913411"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/series-black-lives-in-the-diaspora-past-present-future.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}