A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance

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I returned to listening to “A Little Devil In America” this morning (I didn’t realize I had less than 2 hours left)….I didn’t want it to end.

I think that I'm very interested in the way that people respond to loss. And the way that loss in grief can be really fluorescent, when celebrated. And I think I'm almost required to continually seek this out, because I'm someone who's experienced a lot of loss in my life. And so I am always, always, always kind of searching for a way to make sense of the funeral or the celebratory dance of letting someone go. Because I think that I'm so amazed, so curious, about the times that I have struggled to let people go. I wanted to make peace with that struggle, and understand that there is a way to celebrate someone as they're fading away, or as they've already faded. It’s a joy to get to be in their company,” he said. “And it’s especially a joy to get to have work that has reached an audience far beyond my home. That means a lot. A Little Devil in America focuses largely on American culture, but there’s also an eye towards global storytelling. The issues raised in the book, the concerns and celebrations raised in the book, are not uniquely American, these aren’t American issues or American excitement, and I feel like this is some confirmation of that.”If you’ve had a conversation with me lasting longer than five minutes, it’s entirely possible that I’ve recommended the work of Hanif Abdurraqib. A poet and essayist with a radical capacity for empathy, Abdurraqib’s writing on music and art transcends mere commentary. Instead, in highlighting the connection between what we love and who we are, he finds memories, politics, and family nestled in the liner notes. In Terry Castle on Patricia Highsmith; New books by Hanif Abdurraqib". www.bookforum.com . Retrieved February 21, 2023. VENUGOPAL: You seem to have had a pretty omnivorous cultural appetite, even from a fairly young age. Is that something that started as a kid? Did it start at home? Flood, Alison (October 14, 2021). "Hanif Abdurraqib wins the Gordon Burn prize for A Little Devil in America". The Guardian . Retrieved November 20, 2021. But I don’t think everybody knew that she adopted 12 children from around the world: “The Rainbow Tribe” she called them.

In “A Little Devil in America,” Abdurraqib digs into historical, musicaland personal vaults to unearth layered moments of performance, such as dancing in a basement on the east side of Columbus, Ohio, to the music and videos of Whitney Houston;conversations with elders at a local BBQ joint in Memphis; andJosephine Baker working as a spy for France’s military. Abdurraqib details how these performances fit into the overall conversation centered on American culture. and…. These and’s will make you smile if you choose to read or listen to this wonderful book. Nobody enhances the word AND more than Hanif…with purpose and love… Abdurraqib, Hanif (December 8, 2017). "The Year in Living Alone". Hazlitt. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018 . Retrieved January 6, 2018. Now, sometimes, there were first, second and third, but I was kind of horrified by that aspect of it. And to juxtapose that against the Soul Train Line, which is more of a sprint than a marathon - at least in its moment, right? - and I was thinking about the early days of the Soul Train Line where it was much more partner-heavy, where people would sometimes partner with just anyone, maybe someone they met on the dance floor or someone they came with or someone they'd known for a long time and to make the most of their time in the line among many spectators, both propelling them forward and watching at home. It felt like something I could weigh against this idea of endurance, you know? That was fascinating to me. I AM FLOORED. THIS WAS BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS. I'll review it as soon as I have more time to process.HA: No, no. I mean, I think I’m someone who, if there is one strength that I think I have, it’s that I know my limits. And, you know, I have a pretty poor fiction-reading practice that I’m working on. You know, it’s funny, because I grew up reading primarily fiction. And I love fiction. It’s not like I’m averse to fiction. I just kind of feel like I require a level of focus getting into fiction that I haven’t been able to tap into for the past year or so. But a goal of mine this year is to kind of reform and rejuvenate my fiction-reading practice. And when I read good fiction, when I’m present with fiction, it seems like a real impossible task for me to write, you know, where I’m just so in awe of the work. I’m often in awe of poets and nonfiction writers, but I think what I am in awe of those folks — it’s very, like, I find myself asking, “Well, how did this happen?” or “How did this get made?” But I think there’s a part of my brain that can, if not make a path to do that, can make a path to understanding that. But fiction, I’m always kind of like, “I don’t know if there’s any way that I can wrap my head around the crafting of this, or how this was crafted.”