Embodying Black Experience: How the history of the diasporic black body in American art, athleticism, and performance resonates in daily life

Embodying Black Experience places a spotlight on spectacular acts of racial violence–from police stops (racial profiling) to lynching campaigns–and shows how African American men and women have employed performance to respond to the intrusion of such events within their daily lives. Masterfully blending biography, archival history, performance theory, and phenomenology, Harvey Young centers selected artistic and athletic performances–photography, boxing, theatre/performance art, and museum display–as lenses through which to gain access to the lived experiences of a variety of individuals. The photographs of Joseph Zealy, Richard Roberts, and Walker Evans; the boxing performances of Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali; the plays of Suzan-Lori Parks, Robbie McCauley, and Dael Orlandersmith; and the tragic performances of Bootjack McDaniels and James Cameron offer insight into the lives of black folk across the previous two centuries and reveal the similar ways in which black artists/performers/athletes have acted to challenge the racist (and racializing) assumptions of the societies they lived in.