Hanif Abdurraqib on A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA: NOTES IN PRAISE OF BLACK PERFORMANCE
\u201cThe book's title comes from Josephine Baker\u2019s\xa0speech at the March on Washington\xa0\u2026\xa0she was speaking to a crowd that was younger, and maybe did not know her from her heyday of performance. And she compels them to go and ask their parents and grandparents about her and\xa0the\xa0system,\xa0They'll tell you that I was a devil and they'll be right. I was a devil in other countries. And I was a little devil in America, too.\u201d Hanif Abdurraqib \xad\u2014 MacArthur genius grant recipient, National Book Award finalist and winner of a Carnegie Medal from the American Library Association \u2014 joins us on the show to talk about his latest book,\xa0A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, which is dedicated to the iconic Josephine Baker and just out in paperback. Hanif riffs on what joy sounds like to him, magician Ellen Armstrong, the line between consumption and affection, what performance means for himself and others, and more with Poured Over\u2019s host, Miwa Messer.
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Featured Books:
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance\xa0by Hanif Abdurraqib
A Fortune for Your Disaster\xa0by Hanif Abdurraqib
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Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays).