Full Description
In the open access book Higher Flight, pre-eminent scholar and activist James B. Stewart offers a much-needed critical assessment of the current state of Black/Africana studies in order to chart a path forward. In three equally groundbreaking sections, Stewart clarifies and refines the distinctive approaches that currently define the field; shows how creative production in particular can serve as a unique means of cultural analysis and political mobilization; and suggests how to restore the balance between intellectual inquiry and direct action in order to improve the actual lived experiences of people of African descent. Each section incorporates various forms of expression, including Stewart's essays, speeches, and poems, and the book as a whole covers a vast range of figures, issues, and phenomena, from W.E.B, Du Bois to James Baldwin, from conscious hip-hop to the Black Lives Matter movement, from Hurricane Katrina to Covid-19, and very much in between.
Written with an accessible authoritativeness few Black/Africana scholar-activists can match, Stewart offers a must-read not only for researchers, but also for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students interested in Black/Africana studies, diaspora studies, ethnic studies, Black womanist/feminist studies, and American studies, as well as in African American history, culture, politics, economics, literature, and philosophy.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.
Contents
Introduction
Forgotten Trees?
Introduction
Part 1: Transdisciplinary Theoretical and Methodological Trajectories
1.Pursuit of Knowledge?
2.Prologue
3.Du Bois's The Negro and Contemporary Black/Africana Studies
4.Black/Africana Studies, Then and Now: Reconstructing a Century of Intellectual Inquiry and Political Engagement, 1915-2015
5.Art, Politics, Cultural Studies, and Post-Structuralist Philosophy in Black/Africana Studies: Deciphering Complex Relationships
Part 2: In Search of Progressive Cultural Production
6.Streaming to Nowhere
7.Prologue
8.Neutering the Black Power Movement: The Hijacking of Protest Symbolism
9."Until Justice Rolls Down Like Water and Righteousness like a Mighty Stream: The Celebration of
10.Black Life in the Music of Mausiki Scales and the Common Ground Collective
11."I Think We Killed Bigfoot"-- Conscious Rap Music in the Pacific Northwest: Introducing "The Rhetorician"
12.No More Water, The Fire This Time! Channeling James Baldwin's Perspectives on History and Identity to Pursue Racial Equity in the 21st Century
13.Does Anyone Know My Name? Resurrecting the Artistic Activism of Paul Robeson
Part 3: Advancing the Global Liberation Struggle
14.Social Inactivism (poem)
15.Reparations Now!!! (poem)
16.Prologue
17.Onward Africana Women Warriors!
18.The Institutional Decimation of Black Males: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective
19.Resocializing Gang Bangers: A Comprehensive Strategy to Promote Violence Reduction and Community Reintegration
20.Globalizing Black Identity: Challenges and Possibilities for Developing Liberatory Coalitions
21.Still Seeking Forty Acres and a Mule: Tracking the Global Reparations Movement
22.Showdown at the Crossroads?: Technology Development, Cyberspace, Liberation, and Identity Construction
23.Searching for Wakanda: Understanding and Mastering Liberatory Technologies
Conclusion
A Higher Flight to Liberation: Don't Let Them Clip Our Wings!
