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Book

Black in blues : how a color tells the story of my people

Call Number

  • 305.896 P4634 (CEN, OSH, POW)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPulishers, [2025]

Physical Description

243 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 22 cm

Summary

"A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue - and its fascinating role in Black history and culture - from National Book Award winner Imani Perry. Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong's question, 'What did I do to be so Black and blue?' In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world's favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey--an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology."--

Contents

  • Our blue interior
  • Writing in color
  • Blue goes down
  • The land where the blues began
  • True blue
  • Antigua, South Carolina, Montserrat
  • Saint-Domingue and Haiti
  • A sign which will not be cut off
  • Jaybirds sing
  • Blue gums and blue-black
  • Hoodoo blue
  • The blue note
  • Blue pots
  • Lonely blue
  • Blue-eyed negroes
  • Blue-back speller
  • Egyptian blue in Alabama
  • Blue flag, gold star
  • The blues
  • Eating the other
  • Janie's blues
  • Bentonia
  • Blueprints
  • Citizens
  • Montgomery, Newport, Cape Verde, Accra
  • Afro blue
  • The boys in blue
  • Overall movement
  • Holy repetition
  • Black saint
  • Old blue eyes, new blacks
  • Heaven's there for those...
  • From Indigo child to Whitney's blues
  • Seeing the seventh son
  • God's will undone, the creek did rise.

Subjects