Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture

Fresh takes on key questions in black performance and black popular culture, by leading artists, academics, and critics Black Cultural Traffic traces how blackness travels globally in performance, engaging the work of an international and interdisciplinary mix of scholars, critics, and practicing artists. The book’s sixteen essays provide nuanced and complex perspectives on black culture, not as a static set of shared beliefs and customs but as something that is contingent and dynamic. The essays engage with critical issues such as circulation, cultural appropriation, commodification, commercialization, and hybridity as they take up subjects that include television, hlp hop, R&B, gospel, film, theater, fashion, and pop music celebrities in Africa, Europe, and the United States. The volume also features commentary by a range of prominent black artists including choreographer Donald Byrd, spoken-word artist Michael Franti, jazz bassist Christian McBride, performance artist Rhodessa Jones, and hip-hop theater artist Will Power. The book’s engaging combination of scholarship with artists’ statements will appeal to a wide readership interested in understanding the circulation and multidirectional movements of black culture.